Major Smash Bros tournament ‘shut down by Nintendo’
Nintendo has allegedly shut down a large Smash Bros. fan tournament at the last minute, its organisers have claimed.
Smash World Tour, which was set to have its annual championships on December 9 to 11 with a prize pool of $250,000, will now seemingly no longer go ahead, with Nintendo being blamed for the cancellation and rival tournament organiser Panda being implicated in the decision.
Nintendo has denied some of the allegations.
In a statement posted by the organisers of the event, it was claimed that despite having productive conversations with Nintendo about receiving an ongoing licence to host Smash Bros tournaments, Nintendo suddenly stated that the Smash World Tour could no longer go ahead.
“Without any warning, we received notice the night before Thanksgiving from Nintendo that we could no longer operate,” it said. “This was especially shocking given our discourse with Nintendo the past twelve months.”
The statement also accused the CEO and co-founder of Panda, a Smash Bros tournament with a Nintendo licence, of trying to sabotage Smash World Tour’s 2022 events by telling tournament organisers last year that it was shutting down.
“We specifically held off announcing 2022’s Smash World Tour at [the 2021 Championshops], per the request of Nintendo,” it said. “The aim was to get licensed before our 2022 Tour was announced and kicked off in March.
“During that time period of December to March, we continued our talks with Nintendo. For the first time, we felt like Nintendo was being consistently straightforward, transparent, and direct in answering our questions. We also began finalizing details of the 2022 Smash World Tour with various tournament organizers around the world, this time with more confidence than ever.
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