Smash World Tour Players Comment Following Tournament Cancellation: In order to qualify for the Smash World Tour Championships, where the best players were expected to battle with $250,000 on the line, professional Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate players had to participate in tournaments all around the world all year.
But on November 29, all of the anticipation and enthusiasm collapsed. The 2022 Smash World Tour Championships and the 2023 Smash World Tour events must be scrapped, according to an article published by the Smash World Tour organizers on Medium.
According to professional Smash player Axe, the Smash community valued this tournament highly.
Therefore, according to Axe, “the Smash World Tour was nearly like the Super Bowl of Smash competitions.” This weekend is when the finals will take place, and many participants, including me, have planned to attend particular events all year long in an effort to earn enough points to secure a spot at this one competition.
Smash World Tour Players Comment Following Tournament Cancellation
The Super Bowl’s cancellation doesn’t scare professional football players. Esports competitors typically don’t have to be concerned about their events being canceled. However, fretting about event cancellations is essentially a job necessity for professional Super Smash Bros. players.
Toph, a Smash Bros. commentator and the player who has been around for a large portion of the professional Smash community and Nintendo’s lengthy history of conflict, said that there is a “sort of deep-seated and long-burning fear, I suppose, of Nintendo shutting down events.”
Toph’s concerns are well-founded because there have been numerous cases of Smash players planning an event only to have Nintendo send a “nasty letter” to put a halt to everything.
Just days before the competition, Nintendo notoriously withdrew Smash Melee from EVO 2013. But a few hours later, Nintendo lifted the ban in response to widespread outcry.
More recently, when participants attempted to continue their tournaments by using online mods for Melee—a game with no legal online mode—during the height of the pandemic in 2020, the business canceled a tournament.
The Smash World Tour is the most recent victim of the conflict between professional Smash players and Nintendo, and its discontinuation is having a significant impact on the community.
‘The Super Bowl’ Of Smash Competitive Bros
In order to provide the Melee and Ultimate communities with a yearly tournament circuit to compete in, the Smash World Tour was created.
For the Tour’s championship event at the conclusion of the year, other connected tournaments held throughout the year were worth qualifying points. Each event on the calendar gained a sense of continuity and importance thanks to the Tour.
However, when the event that participants were vying for doesn’t happen, points, standings, and qualifications soon lose their significance. Nintendo allegedly gave the SWT’s organizers notice that they would no longer be able to function in late November.
The Smash World Tour was an unlicensed event, which effectively meant that Nintendo had not given it the go-ahead. Nintendo didn’t issue a license to the Smash World Tour organizers despite them negotiating with them to obtain one during the rest of 2022.
Apart from [Nintendo] taking a while to answer for getting [SWT] formally licensed, everything seemed to be going well throughout the year, but representatives from Nintendo said that it should be acceptable to run even without a license.
Everything seemed wonderful, and it’s been happening plenty of times before,” Axe added. Nintendo says, “We’re just going to shut it down,” at the last minute, you know?
According to Nintendo, their “decision was completely based on our examination of the plans provided by the SWT and our evaluation of their unlicensed activities,” according to an official statement.
Any partner that we offer a license to must adhere to the high standards we demand in terms of the health and safety of our fans, continued Nintendo. The Smash community as a whole, though, thinks there’s something else going on behind the scenes.
Smash World Tour Organizers Accuse Panda Of Unfair Play
For the first legally licensed Super Smash Bros. Circuit, Nintendo did grant Panda Global a license and formally work with them in 2021.
The Panda Cup Finale, which was initially planned to take place from December 16 to 18, has been building up throughout this year through a series of competitions. However, the Smash World Tour piece was chock-full of charges levied against Panda, and in particular, Dr. Alan Bunney, Panda CEO.
I'm quitting panda.
I've truly enjoyed my time there, and they treated me well.
I know that, at a certain point, they had the community's best interests in mind. I just don't think I can support them anymore.Now I must sleep for 1000 years in preparation for da next tournament
— Plub (@Plup_Club) December 3, 2022
According to rumors that have been circulating behind the scenes for a while, practically every big tournament organizer is furious with Panda and its CEO Allen in particular for acting in such a disrespectful manner, Toph remarked.
According to allegations made by Smash World Tour, Bunney was forcing particular tournament directors in the neighborhood to either sign up for the Panda Circuit or risk having their events canceled.
Players from all across the community condemned Panda and Bunney in particular for the discontinuation of the Smash World Tour. Many in the community think Panda intentionally scuttled the Smash World Tour by exploiting their connections with Nintendo because they didn’t want a rival Smash circuit.
“And as a group, we plainly have no resources outside one another. Because of the way our society is structured, if a bad actor just declares, “Hey, now I’m the bully, and it’s just going to be my way or the highway,” then it is evident that we will not be able to survive “explained Toph.
High-profile Panda players left the company as a result, including Plup, who won the Smash World Tour championships for Melee in 2021. Players also tweeted their intentions to skip the Panda Cup Finale, joining a large number of other Panda employees in announcing their departure from the company.
Read More:
