Nintendo suddenly shuts down major Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament happening in less than two weeks, causing the organizers massive losses
The upcoming Smash World Tour Championships and the entirety of the 2023 Smash World Tour must be cancelled.
Full Story: https://t.co/3ro3q7rr4h pic.twitter.com/Gcgcgakdvp
— Smash World Tour 2022 (@SmashWorldTour) November 29, 2022
by fushega
34 Comments
https://www.dexerto.com/smash/nintendo-slammed-for-forcing-smash-world-tour-2022-to-cancel-weeks-before-finals-1998993/ News source coverage
Kind of a dick move tbh.
I know it has SOMETHING to do with Panda, but I was kinda half reading it while grinding for the final stretch in Dragalia. Can anyone translate the reason into human from Lawyer?
They did this like 2 years ago. Can’t remember if it was Smash Bros or Ultimate.
As scummy as Nintendo is when it comes to things like this, word is getting out it was Panda’s CEO (Panda is an Esport organization) that shut it down.
[Proof](https://freeimage.host/i/HfKSxXs)
Edit: As others have pointed out, this snippet is just part of the open letter linked by the OP. When it comes to other sources, we have a few statements from people high up in the scene. [One statement](https://twitter.com/ldeeep/status/1597728742343778304) that backs up the information in this open letter regarding Panda is from an event organizer for one of the biggest smash events out there.
Nintendo is likely not innocent here but how much is their fault is not clear/up to interpretation. For more info I recommend heading over to /r/smashbros
Seems like what happened (reading between the lines) was that Panda got (bought?) the rights from Nintendo to run/broadcast Smash tournaments. Quotes from the Dextero article, emphasis mine [https://www.dexerto.com/smash/nintendo-slammed-for-forcing-smash-world-tour-2022-to-cancel-weeks-before-finals-1998993/](https://www.dexerto.com/smash/nintendo-slammed-for-forcing-smash-world-tour-2022-to-cancel-weeks-before-finals-1998993/).
>LD from Beyond The Summit has also revealed that Alan Bunney from Panda (another tournament organizer) sent messages to other TOs that hinted that this would happen if they didn’t participate in the upcoming **Nintendo-licensed** Panda Cup.
Panda then approached other TOs that weren’t licenced, and asked them to sign on, presumably paying Panda some licence fee. The other TOs refused. So Panda’s paid for the licence fee and run the tournaments legit (by Smash standards) and the other TOs who didn’t pay Nintendo don’t want to pay up.
So Panda essentially told Nintendo about those other unlicensed tourneys (because if you pay for a licence and others don’t, and the licensor doesn’t do anything about the unlicensed freeriders, then what’s the point of paying for a licence) and Ninty shut them down.
​
IMO, as a media guy, seems about right, this is how most media is monetised. Welcome to the real world.
We all love the Switch, but in all honestly… Nintendo is a pretty scummy company.
This has been a pattern. Nintendo has increasingly had an acrimonious and sometimes hostile relationship towards their community, especially the Smash community. I’m kind of sick of it. On the one hand they make some of the best and most beloved video games on Planet Earth. On the other hand they often act like a pack of greedy contemptuous shit lords.
This whole thing is absolutely disgraceful.
There’s something screwy going on here.
But yeah, this sucks.
Question – what would happen if every single player simply decided to boycott the Panda thing? I’m talking Every. Single. One.
In short, it seems like Panda is trying to eliminate all other Smash series by aggressively pushing for exclusivity contracts. First they tried to secure an exclusivity contract with a known broadcaster. When that didn’t work they pushed Nintendo for an exclusive commercial license. Based on the outcome, we have no reason to assume otherwise and Panda likely does have an exclusivity deal with them now.
EDIT: Seems like the story is developing a bit more and we are seeing conflicting information coming from Nintendo and SWT. Seems like there may have been some miscommunications coming from Nintendo. To be safe, I’m not forming any conclusions until we know more.
And this is why Nintendo sucks as a company.
Everyone out here just saying “Panda” like everyone knows what the fuck it means. Anyone want to elaborate?
Panda fucking sucks. We all know nintendo sucks, but it’s unbelievable that there is FINALLY some official support for a real scene and somehow panda fucking shits on everyone else to try and be king of a tiny castle instead of recognize how valuable this would be to the community. Fuck panda, man. Fuck panda.
nobody hates their customers like nintendo does, nobody
This is such a dick move. Not just for shutting it down, but the timeline. Doing it right before a major holiday when all the organizers were probably on vacation, and even if they are not most of the companies support the event probably were. So Nintendo effectively gave them a week to try and cancel thing, and try and salvage some of the money they spent.
It does not feel like a simple IP thing. This feels like a “FU” move, to try and damage all parties organizing the event as much as possible.
Less and less i want to support nintendo. It seems greed got the upper hand.
woooooow. Nintendo fucking sucks
It’s not immediately obvious to me why you need Nintendo’s permission to host a tournament in the first place.
nintendo sabotaging another smash event. nothing out of the ordinary
Panda Defense Force has launched counter operations in the comments.
nintendo needs to grow up
We boycott Panda cup
Way to go with the miss lead! It’s Panda tell the truth or just don’t post!
The plot thickens
Thread title Is misleading. Blame goes to Panda.
Yesterday I had no idea who Panda was.
Today, their alleged behaviour makes me want to avoid them at all costs.
Way to go, Alan.
The entire /r/Nintendo community now hates you and your company.
Reading through the information available this seems to be a Panda problem so why is everyone pitchforks and torches again at Nintendo?
Beyond the CEO making threats, I wasn’t able to piece together what the reason was. Can someone explain,please? Also from what I’ve seen in other comments, the title is misleading.
If not Panda then someone else. Eventually one day, Nintendo would want full control of the smash competitive scene because there’s enough money to be made now that the scene has grown big enough.
For as much joy as they bring into the world, Nintendo does really have some world class fuckers running it. Absolute dogshit corporation.
What Nintendo giveth, Nintendo can taketh away… 😭
Just wow..
I know nothing but how is this legal? Aren’t people just playing video games? Like how can that be shut down unless they’re live streaming it or something.
Oh man, looks like Nintendo just shut down all the Smash tournaments this year haha because fuck Panda.
Am I having deja vu?