Panda Global/Nintendo has forced Smash World Tour to stop operating

[Gizmo_Duck]

It is with an unbelievably heavy heart that we must announce that both the upcoming Smash World Tour Championships, as well as the 2023 Smash World Tour must be canceled.

Without any warning, we received notice the night before Thanksgiving from Nintendo that we could no longer operate. This was especially shocking given our discourse with Nintendo the past twelve months. Since then, we have been working around the clock to take the proper steps logistically, as well as to prepare this statement with proper legal guidance.

We are seriously grateful for all of the support over the years, and we are incredibly proud of what we were able to build as a community. In 2022 alone, we connected over 6,400 live events worldwide, with over 325,000 in-person entrants, making the Smash World Tour (SWT, or the Tour) the largest esports tour in history, for any game title. The Championships would also have had the largest prize pool in Smash history at over $250,000. The 2023 Smash World Tour planned to have a prize pool of over $350,000.

That being said, we are truly devastated that this is all being taken away.

The impact the Tour has had globally cannot be overstated — the amount of tournament organizers, competitors and fans this will affect is hard to measure. We realized just how much we could expand our spotlight to lesser-known regions, as well as Smash World Tour prize pools in 2023 and beyond, establishing a much healthier ecosystem in the community around the world. We believe this decision by Nintendo sets all of that back significantly, which is incredibly disappointing.

Truly, words cannot express how difficult this process has been. We had been preparing a one-of-a-kind event to crown our World Champions, and we know just how hard the competitors have worked to get to this point. We were also projecting amazing viewership, since the 2021 Smash World Tour Championships had the highest-viewership of any Smash event last year. We even had multiple independent documentary crews coming out, both domestic and international, to cover this historic event. Especially with the storylines coming into this year with a full global tour (with little COVID interference), the Championships were going to break records and introduce so many new people to this amazing community.

On a logistics note, we will be reaching out to those affected by the canceling of the Smash World Tour Championships. As many of you know, we lost a significant amount of money in the first 18 months of SWT, this was truly a labor of love for us. We don't know where everything will land quite yet with contracts, sponsor obligations, etc — in short, we will be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars due to Nintendo's actions. That being said, we are taking steps to remedy many issues that have arisen from canceling the upcoming Smash World Tour Championships — Especially for the players. Please keep an eye out in the coming days for help with travel arrangements. Given the timeline that we were forced into, we had to publish this statement before we could iron out all of the details. All attendees will be issued full refunds.

 

[King Sun]

Smash community

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

This is actually a really big deal in the FGC, i wonder where Smash will end up

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

That sad ass reply didn’t even explain why for those of us who don’t follow this shyt but are interested in the headline

 

[Animal House]

That sad ass reply didn’t even explain why for those of us who don’t follow this shyt but are interested in the headline

Basically a lot of

 

[King Sun]

This is actually a really big deal in the FGC, i wonder where Smash will end up

Triforce was saying this way back in 2011 if the FGC doesn't act right the companies will take over and bar them for holding tournaments but the FGC going to FGC

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Triforce was saying this way back in 2011 if the FGC doesn't act right the companies will take over and bar them for holding tournaments but the FGC going to FGC

Someone explain why. Wtf does "act right" mean? Isn't this just people in a hotel ball room or arena playing videogames for money? Wtf is this world

 

[King Sun]

Someone explain why. Wtf does "act right" mean? Isn't this just people in a hotel ball room or arena playing videogames for money? Wtf is this world

Oh man just google FGC pedos the reddit might come up. fukkery on both the SF and the smash community but the smash community was/is even more demonic

 

[Toe Jay Simpson]

I’m surprised it took them this long. No one wants their brand…especially a clean one to be associated with those weirdos

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Oh man just google FGC pedos the reddit might come up. fukkery on both the SF and the smash community but the smash community was/is even more demonic

Why are y'all being so weird and fukkin cryptic. Just say they're fukking people over for money, are racist, or pedophiles, or something. Just fukking explain it

shyt like this is why I stopped fukking with all gaming communities whatsoever.

 

[King Sun]

I’m surprised it took them this long. No one wants their brand…especially a clean one to be associated with those weirdos

Plus the FGC acts like they are doing these companies an favor when they can just run their own tourneys for better or worse.

 

[King Sun]

Why are y'all being so weird and fukkin cryptic. Just say they're fukking people over for money, are racist, or pedophiles, or something. Just fukking explain it

shyt like this is why I stopped fukking with all gaming communities whatsoever.

I'm not google breh but yes they are all 3. Hell a little white kid got rapped and groomed by a mid 20's biracal woman in the smash community and that's just the tip of the weirdness

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Why are y'all being so weird and fukkin cryptic. Just say they're fukking people over for money, are racist, or pedophiles, or something. Just fukking explain it

shyt like this is why I stopped fukking with all gaming communities whatsoever.

I dont think anyone is clear on the specifics at this point

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

I'm not google breh but yes they are all 3. Hell a little white kid got rapped and groomed by a mid 20's biracal woman in the smash community and that's just the tip of the weirdness

Okay, that context helps. They're cancelled because of their general weird creepy pedo fukkery disgustingness. Got it.

That wasn't clear at ALL. It couldn't been over money, breaking some gaming rule, Nintendo going exclusive elsewhere, etc. That level of context was all I was asking. Damn gamers are weird ASF sometimes...and not just smash players...

 

[TripleAgent]

Smash

Good riddance