Board 8 > Smash Tournament Drama

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://medium.com/@smashworldtour/smash-world-tour-official-statement-f568a3d135c8

A table of contents.

Oh boy.

Again?

tl;dr is that one dickhead behind the scenes torpedoed several major tournaments, including ones Nintendo was actually willing to support

Why does a video game company have legal power over competitions?

paperwarior posted...

Why does a video game company have legal power over competitions?

Threatening to sue = legal power

paperwarior posted...

Why does a video game company have legal power over competitions?

This is a company that said self imposed Nuzlockes were an illegal game modification.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

This is a company that said self imposed Nuzlockes were an illegal game modification.

Wasn't that GameFreak and not Nintendo?

Apparently Nintendo isn't even the biggest villain this time! That one dickhead (head of Panda, a major Smash-based company) was partnering with them to run the Panda Cup. He somehow convinced them to CAD other major tournaments, presumably to divert support to his own. Now those tournaments aren't happening and the Panda one maybe isn't either

Smash is suffering

this is why the FGC at large does not trust esports organizations, they care about nothing but maximizing their piece of the pie at all costs. Nintendo deserves blame too, but given how esports organizations have historically behaved, there is no reason to doubt the accusations levied against Panda Global here.

The head of BTS (one of the biggest esports streaming services, they host the smash summits) also confirmed the allegations against Panda so...seems like they're probably legit. Unfortunate situation, there is a LOT of money being lost in a scene that absolutely can't afford that

https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1597714079832895488

Twitter reply mob mentality wont let panda get away with this!

lol smash

Imagine talking about Smash when it already got killed 3 times by Nick Brawl, Multiversus, and Lego Brawl.

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-smash-world-tour-fgc-shut-down-panda-esports-1849833867

Nintendo is saying they didn't end the 2022 event

Whay

I draw the line at Lego Brawls. I tried the demo. It's more of a team arena game than any kind of fighter.

GTM posted...

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-smash-world-tour-fgc-shut-down-panda-esports-1849833867

Nintendo is saying they didn't end the 2022 event

Whay

Either ass covering or different people in the lines of communication saying different things

The Smash World Tour guys responded with this:

We did not expect to have to address this, but Nintendos response via Kotaku has been brought to our attention:

Unfortunately after continuous conversations with Smash World Tour, and after giving the same deep consideration we apply to any potential partner, we were unable to come to an agreement with SWT for a full circuit in 2023. Nintendo did not request any changes to or cancellation of remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championship event, considering the negative impact on the players who were already planning to participate.

We are unsure why they are taking this angle, especially in light of the greater statement and all that it contains.

To reiterate from the official statement:

As a last ditch effort, we asked if we could continue running the Championships and the Tour next year without a license, and shift our focus to working with them in 2024. We alluded to how the last year functioned in that capacity, with a mutual understanding that we would not get shut down and focus on the future. We were told directly that those times were now over. This was the final nail in the coffin given our very particular relationship with Nintendo. This is when we realized it truly was all being shut down for real. We asked if they understood the waves that would be made if we were forced to cancel, and Nintendo communicated that they were indeed aware.
To be clear, we asked Nintendo multiple times if they had considered the implications of canceling the Championships as well as next years Tour. They affirmed that they had considered all variables.

We received this statement in writing from Nintendo shortly after our call:

It is Nintendos expectation that an approved license be secured in order to operate any commercial activity featuring Nintendo IP. It is also expected to secure such a license well in advance of any public announcement. After further review, weve found that the Smash World Tour has not met these expectations around health & safety guidelines and has not adhered to our internal partner guidelines. Nintendo will not be able to grant a license for the Smash World Tour Championship 2022 or any Smash World Tour activity in 2023.
To be clear, we did not even submit an application for 2023 yet, the license application was for the 2022 Championships (submitted in April). Nintendo including all 2023 activity was an addition we were not even expecting. In our call that accompanied the statement, we asked multiple times if we would be able to continue to operate without a license as we had in years past with the same unofficial understanding with Nintendo. We were told point blank that those times are over.

They followed up the call with their statement in writing, again confirming both the 2022 Championships and all 2023 activity were in the exact same boat.

TomNook posted...

Imagine talking about Smash when it already got killed 3 times by Nick Brawl, Multiversus, and Lego Brawl.

Are those games even popular anymore?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

This is a company that said self imposed Nuzlockes were an illegal game modification.

wut

Mind you the company has also denied saying that, and I dont think we heard about it directly from them in the first place
(Them being The Pokemon Company, who I believe has people from both Nintendo and Gamefreak)

Nintendo denied the license for a reason, but SWT hasn't shared the reason, only described it as vague. I'd be curious to see what the reason was, I think that's a potentially huge piece to all of this.

I do think it was a mistake to continue using the term "Smash" without the license. I don't know the full history here but why didn't SWT try to get a license in 2021?

Smash tournaments have historically not been associated with Nintendo at all. I'm not active in the scene anymore so I can't say much about what's changed recently, but I think that's the significance behind the "those times are over" remark.

MZero posted...

wut

To be fair this was secondhand from people who previously worked at Treehouse and possibly may have mistakenly been thinking of randomizers and confused the two

I think that whole nuzlocke thing got sorted as: they don't want you doing things you can't do in vanilla

(so like, the randomizer and/or the necessary use of emu was the sticking point, wasn't it?)

You can play Nuzlocke on a legitimate unmodified cartridge. So again that makes me think they had confused it with randomizers

https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-issues-full-statement-over-smash-world-tour-cancellation

Pretty much the corporate gaslighting that was expected (well, besides Nintendo maybe not responding at all).

Relevant note:
https://twitter.com/aidencalvin/status/1597887859029344256?t=aRQuaZqlMj61sRszXAS7GQ&s=19

https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1599631343159480321

Keep in mind, it doesn't mean that he's no longer owner of the company.

Bunch of people are leaving Panda as well, which is probably what triggered that statement

https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2022/dec/03/panda-global-fgc-resign/

https://twitter.com/DrAlanB/status/1599644902807068673

war were declared

https://twitter.com/DrAlanB/status/1600344613264723968

dr alan has given his statement

i'm glad he cleared things up, i'm on his side now

CoolCly posted...

https://twitter.com/DrAlanB/status/1600344613264723968

dr alan has given his statement

i'm glad he cleared things up, i'm on his side now

He's literally lying bro

I know. That statement is an entire textbook worth of examples of attempting to manipulate your way out of a situation. There's emotional appeals for sympathy, weaving a narrative of conspiracy behind rivals actions, personal attacks on some key characters to try and create another villain to divert the hate to, using clipped logs intentionally leaving out context that changes the nature of the conversation. and plenty of just straight up lies.

I'm honestly kind of impressed he tried so much here.