One of the biggest Smash tournaments in the world, the Smash World Tour Championships, with over 6'400 live events worldwide and more than 325'000 in-person entrants, has received a notice from Nintendo two weeks before the event to cease operations.

The Smash World Tour (SWT) was scheduled to start on December 9th up to December 11th in San Antonio, Texas, with the biggest prize pool ever in the championship's history, with over $250'000. The tournament had previously stopped due to the worldwide pandemic, and this year's tournament was going to be the return to the in-person format for participants and those involved.

Back in November, 2021, the people from SWT got contacted by Nintendo themselves, alongside a legal representative of them. Though, to their surprise, the contact was not given to shut the event down, but rather to pursue a partnership and a legal use of the license so they could continue carrying forward with SWT's projects. Afterwards, from December up to March 2022, the announcement for a 2022 project was withhold as requested by Nintendo, and continued forwards according to Nintendo's guidelines, but with some issues with Panda's team in regards to the event. SWT submitted their request in April of 2022 for the upcoming event, and there was no response up until August, where the team had no option but to come forward with the announcement due to the delays in communication with Nintendo.

Nintendo responded back, and quoting the SWT team's official statement:

Nintendo finally responded and mentioned another event that had their team incredibly busy, which is why there were delays. They were very apologetic for the long silence and said they completely understood that we had to announce.

The proper submission was made in April, which reconvened with Nintendo all the way up to September, with Nintendo yet again reassuring that, while nothing was decided yet, they apologized for how long the process had taken so far, while mentioning that they were also monitoring the actions of Panda and their executive team due to their behaviour throughout the year.

November quickly came by, only one month before the event, and Nintendo finally got back in contact with the team on November 23rd, and quoting SWT's team:

Our Nintendo rep opened by letting us know that they are being asked to deliver the news that going forward, Nintendo expects us to only operate with a commercial license, and that we would not be granted one for the upcoming Championships, or any activity in 2023. We received this in writing as well.

We asked if they could clarify the reasoning for their decision. Initially, Nintendo gave us a reason that seemed to be misinformed, and when we pushed back to ask for more details, Nintendo said they were unable to give any specifics and had to speak in generalities moving forward. This was very frustrating given everything we had been told all year regarding accessibility and transparency in requirements. It felt as though Nintendo simply did not want the Smash World Tour to continue to exist. At this point, we now felt we had been strung along this entire time.

Without a license, the championship couldn't operate. In short words, they can't continue forward, or they might risk a legal action by Nintendo (if one reads between the lines) if they continue forward with the event.

Source

 

[Kioku]

Nintendo says yes, but only if you do exactly what they want.

I'm not upset, just disappointed. Not surprised either.

Remember, they don't give a fuck about you.

 

[Zense]

"while mentioning that they were also monitoring the actions of Panda and their executive team due to their behaviour throughout the year."

I do wonder what Panda's actions and behavior were since Nintendo had to monitor them.

 

[Kwyjor]

the Smash World Tour Championships, with over 6'400 live events worldwide and more than 325'000 in-person entrants [...] the biggest prize pool ever in the championship's history, with over $250'000.

(Where in the world do you write numbers like this..?)

I do wonder what Panda's actions and behavior were since Nintendo had to monitor them.

Wasn't Nintendo upset over the use of unofficial hacks like Slippi?

 

[SG854]

I didn't read a single word of this thread so im judging purely on headlines. But all I want to say is Fuck Nintendo.

 

[Zense]

(Where in the world do you write numbers like this..?)

Switzerland. Had to google it:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40399585/format-numbers-with-apostrophe-as-thousands-separator

Wasn't Nintendo upset over the use of unofficial hacks like Slippi?

Was that this tournament? Thought that was another one the Ninjas had already taken care of.

 

[diggeloid]

I do wonder what Panda's actions and behavior were since Nintendo had to monitor them.

I found articles saying that people are pissed at Panda for actively trying to undermine/sabotage SWT, and there's even a large movement to unsubscribe from Panda Global's socials/youtube channels.

...but I find it hard to believe Nintendo would care about drama like that. If they did, why would they shut down SWT then? That's throwing gasoline on a fire.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

Once again, Craptendo shows how much they care about their fanbase. Which is an awful lot, just, in a very negative way.
As usual, fuck them. Hope one day all this assoholic behaviour is going to to blow back at them tenfold.

 

[x65943]

If true Nintendo really doesn't care about promoting their own games

Seems tho there may be more to this than first glance

 

[Hanafuda]

Gotta wonder how much of this situation results from NOA legal dept and managerial decisions and handling only, and whether Nintendo in Japan were involved or even aware.

 

[MariArch]

Nintendo combatting pedos by just nuking the whole thing. This is a rare Nintendo W in my book

 

[ShadowOne333]

I do wonder what Panda's actions and behavior were since Nintendo had to monitor them.

The full notice by SWT is in the Source link.
There they go into full detail about what Panda's action were throughout the year, but more or less, they were trying to sabotage to an extend so SWT wouldn't happen.
I suggest giving it a full read, it's really interesting. More so since it seems Nintendo just doesn't care about working with fans.

 

[SommaCruz]

And Nintendo loose a great oportunity to advertise one of her product.

 

[Foxi4]

Nintendo shooting themselves in the foot every step of the way. They try their best to make their fans hate them, to no avail. One of the most litigious and unlikeable companies in the industry.

 

[orangy57]

what can they even sue for?

 

[NewLoveMachine]

what can they even sue for?

Probably for the use of registered logos, titles, characters, names, etc. If they wanted to hold a smash tourney they'd have to call it anything else and use legally distinct imagery to avoid any comparisons. I'm no lawyer but you can sue for just about anything in the great US of A.

 

[tpax]

As I always say, Nintendo is a garbage company, almost EA level. I'm still gonna play their games, but they won't see a fucking penny from me (hehe).

 

[JMSH]

Surely just rebrand to the initialism or something.

 

[|<roni&g]

Not a smash guy, but damn I'd love to see Nintendo go under after all the different bs in recent years.

 

[ChanseyIsTheBest]

Nintendo is such a fickle company. No one would put up with Ninty's BS if they didn't have such great games and franchises.