Nintendo at War With Fans? Tournament Organizers Will Lose Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars [UPDATE: Ludwig Saves SWT]

Update

Nintendo released a second statement, and the team at Panda Global has released its own announcement. Both have been sharply criticized not only by the community focused on SSB, but also esports organizations and well-known streamers, including Charles "MoistCr1TiKaL" White and Philip "PhillyD" DeFranco.

Both statements rejected accusations of forcing the cancellation of the Smash World Tour, but basically said nothing concrete. This is compounded by the vague (if not contradictory) wording of both texts. SWT organizers responded to the second comment in a new post.

Gamers and e-sports organizations are making fun of - in their opinion - the poor content of Panda Global's statement. Source: Golden Guardians on Twitter.

The reaction from the community has been intense. Players, commentators, content creators and other Panda Global employees in large numbers began submitting resignations or removing the team's name from their Twitter nicknames, even those unrelated to Super Smash Bros. According to some sources the organization is expected to lose more than 80% of the team.

They, too, were surprised by the SWT affair and disappointed by their sponsor's response. Some have also confirmed some of SWT's allegations, which they can speak openly about as a result of an amusing loophole in their NDA.

On top of that numerous professional players have resigned from the Panda Cup finals. These include the top players of Ultimate and Melee, such as Sparg0 mentioned in the original post, as well as Hungrybox, MKLeo, Axe, Amsa and Zain. The latter responded to Panda's statement with an inelegant but much-talked-about recording, which gained him the applause of Internet users. Panda Cup will also not be counted in the popular OrionRank ranking.

In the succor of the community came streamer Ludwig Ahgren, who, once again, will organize his own private event on the same day as the Panda Cup finals. On Sunday, December 18, eight (perhaps as many as sixteen) players from the top of the SWT rankings will face each other in a tournament with a prize pool of $50,000.

However, on Monday morning another statement from Panda Global appeared, announcing the immediate dismissal of Alan Bunney and the delay of the Panda Cup finals. Bunney announced exposing the "lies" of SWT organizers (and how the Beyond The Summit group had "put the community at risk") in its own announcement "with evidence."

For now, the community does not believe neither Panda Global nor Bunney, especially since the latter took several days to post an entry that tell almost nothing. It remains to wait for further developments, but for most fans and PG employees such a statement is not enough for such a delay.

Original message (November 30)

Nintendo has once again given its fans a hard time. The company allegedly forced the cancellation of the huge Smash World Tour 2022 tournament less than two weeks before the final event, costing organizers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The affair was discussed in detail by parties involved in a lengthy post on Medium.com.

Nintendo vs. the community

In Novemeber, when Panda announced a partnership with Nintendo to organize what was to be de facto the first official tournament series in America, fans of Super Smash Bros. had mixed feelings. The series has a sizable esports scene and even the 20-plus year old SSB Melee is still very popular.

Nevertheless, for years the series remained in the shadow of other franchises, even fighting games. This was mainly due to Nintendo's attitude. The company not only failed to support professional tournaments for two decades, but even actively fought against the perception of SSB as an esport.

As recently as 2020, the company forced cancellation of The Big House Online tournament. Allegedly due to concerns about the potential use of pirated versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Quite a few people suspected that was mostly about the Slippi modification (which adds network matchmaking and so-called rollback, among other things), but according to the organizers, the bone of contention was the entire tournament.

Therefore players on the one hand had high expectations for the Panda Cup, viewing it as an opportunity for SSB to enter the first league of esports competitions with Nintendo's support. Especially in conjunction with the Smash World Tour 2022, organized by the VGBootCamp group, with a prize pool worth more than $250,000.

On the other hand - fans had doubts that the initiative developed jointly with Nintendo had a chance to succeed without harming the community revolving around Super Smash Bros. Especially after the absence of the series at this year's EVO tournament for the first time since 2013. Unfortunately, the fears turned out to be justified.

Nintendo leading astray

In a document shared on Twitter it was revealed that Nintendo had contacted VGBootCamp (the organizer of SWT) and not only did not cause any difficulties, but even offered to officially support the initiative. As stated, the agreement with Panda was by no means "exclusive."

Talks continued even in early 2022, but a small problem arose. Here's the thing, VGBC has learned that Alan Bunney - Panda's CEO - was said to have stated that the "Smash World Tour will not return," contrary to Nintendo's subsequent assurances. What's more, Bunney was said to have actively worked against the SWT by threatening organizers that participation in the SWT would exclude their tournaments from the Panda Cup. It was only the lack of interest in the series that caused Panda to back out of these declarations.

Nintendo supporting the Super Smash Bros. community, 2022, colorized.

Unfortunately, at the same time, VGB's contact with Nintendo deteriorated. Formally, the company still seemed to be seeking cooperation and even talked about player support for SWT.

Even so, as late as the beginning of November, the publisher was still holding off on its decision to finally refuse to grant Smash World Tour an official license without giving any clear reasons. There is also no chance of cooperation next year:

Gamers' fury and Nintendo's explanation

Reactions from the community revolving around the series are easy to predict, especially since VGBootCamp's losses put the future of the organization in question. Gamers almost unanimously criticize both Nintendo and Bunney, as well as Panda. Especially those who qualified to the finals of the Smash World Tour after many competitions and have already booked hotels, planes, etc.

SWT was also supported by the organizers of Beyond the Summit, who allowed former SWT participants to register for the Mainstage 2022 tournament free of charge (and announced the donation of proceeds from Smash World Tour entries). Support for the VGBC was also expressed by well-known commentators and streamers (including MoistCr1TiKaL).

Super Smash Bros. fans have reason to be frustrated. Source: Santiago "Chag" Perez on Twitter.

Alan Bunney himself was also said to have receive bans on entry to tournaments organized by many regions, albeit hard to say how much of this is a joke and how much a serious initiative.

Many people are calling to boycott the finale of Panda Cup tournament (scheduled for December 15) and competitions officially supported by Nintendo. Those who have opted out of participating in the former (or may opt out - some are bound by signed contracts) include Fatality, Sparg0, Axe and n0ne. Even Panda players expressed their disappointment with Nintendo's decision.

A little later Nintendo issued its own announcement (via Kotaku). According to the company, an agreement with the VGB could not be reached, but it did not insist on canceling Smash World Tour or any competitions.

In response, the organizers released the contents of a message from Nintendo sent after the talks had already ended, which explicitly mentions the need to obtain a Nintendo license in order to organize "commercial activities incorporating Nintendo brands" and not granting it to both SWT 2022 or "any SWT-related activities in 2023."

So it looks like the Super Smash Bros. community is still at war with Nintendo and can forget about the support that Capcom and Bandai Namco provide to fans of their fighting games.