Professional Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate players competed in events around the world all year round to earn a spot in the Smash World Tour Championship.
But on November 29th, the year-long build-up and hype collapsed. The organizers of the Smash World Tour posted an article Moderate say 2022 Smash World Tour Championship The 2023 Smash World Tour event must be cancelled. The event meant a lot to the Smash community, as his professional Smash player Ax told his IGN.
“So the Smash World Tour was like the Super Bowl of Smash tournaments,” says Ax. “[The finals were] It’s due to take place this weekend and many players, myself included, plan to attend certain events throughout the year just to try and earn enough points just to attend this one event. rice field. ”
Professional football players don’t worry about the Super Bowl being canceled. But if you’re a professional Super Smash Bros. player, worrying about event cancellations is basically a job requirement.
“I think there’s probably a deep-seated, persistent fear that Nintendo will shut down the event.” Nintendo’s long history of headbutting.
Toph’s reservations aren’t unfounded, as there are multiple instances of Smash players setting up events. Removed Smash Melee from EVO 2013 A few days until the competition. However, due to community outrage, Nintendo withdrew the ban hours later.
recently, The company canceled tournaments amid the 2020 pandemic This is a game without a legal online mode when the player tries to continue the event using Melee’s online mods.
The latest casualty in the battle between professional Smash players and Nintendo has been Smash World Tour, and the cancellation has hit the community hard.
“Super Bowl” from Super Smash Bros.
The Smash World Tour was designed to provide an annual tournament circuit for the Melee and Ultimate community to participate in. A variety of related events throughout the year were worthy of qualifying points for the Tour’s championship event at the end of the year. The tour gave each event across the calendar a sense of continuity and importance.
But points, standings, and qualifications lose their meaning as soon as the event the player was aiming for disappears. SWT organizers say they received notice from Nintendo in late November that they would cease operations. The Smash World Tour was an unlicensed event. In other words, it was not approved by Nintendo. The Smash World Tour organizers were apparently working with Nintendo to license it through 2022, but Nintendo did not grant it.
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“Over the course of the year, everything looked pretty good. [Nintendo] Takes a long time to respond to retrieval [SWT] But a Nintendo rep said it should be fine to run without a license…it’s happened many times before and all sounded good.Shut down, right? ? “
Official Nintendo statement “That decision was based solely on an evaluation of proposals submitted by SWT and an evaluation of unlicensed activity,” it said. Nintendo says, “Licensing partners must meet the high standards we demand when it comes to the health and safety of our fans.” I believe there is.
SWT organizers condemn pandas for unfair play
In 2021, Nintendo has licensed Panda Global and entered into a formal partnership. First officially licensed Super Smash Bros. circuitThis year’s series of tournaments is heading towards the Panda Cup Finale, originally scheduled for December 16-18. .
“Behind the scenes, there’s been talk for quite some time that basically every major tournament organizer is very upset with Panda, especially CEO Allen, for behaving like this. .
The Smash World Tour accusations allege that Bunny was pressuring certain tournament organizers across the community to either enter the Panda Circuit or face canceled results.
Players across the community blamed the cancellation of the Smash World Tour, especially because of Panda and Bunny. Many in the community believed Panda didn’t want a competing Smash circuit, and used their relationship with Nintendo to shut down Smash World Tour.
“And obviously all we have as a community is each other. So basically saying, ‘Hey, now I’m the bully and it’s just going to be my way or the highway.’ The way we do it, the community works if there are bad actors out there, but if that happens, it’s clear we won’t survive,” Toph said.
This allows notable Panda players like Plup, who actually won Melee at the Smash World Tour Championship in 2021, to stay away from pandas. many others employees of panda has He also announced his departure on Twitter, with the player announcing his intention to withdraw from the Panda Cup Finale.
Stop panda.
I really enjoyed my time there and they took good care of me.
I know that at some point they had the best interests of the community in mind.I have to sleep for 1000 years to prepare for the next tournament
— Prab (@Plup_Club) December 3, 2022
“That’s why I decided not to participate in the Panda Cup finale,” Ax said. “They invited me…they were going to fly me there, I was going to compete over the weekend.I know there’s a lot of money on the line, but I can’t… I don’t feel good about it.”
Finally, pandas revealed that Bunny was dismissed from his role as CEO, and the Panda Cup finale has been postponed.Bunny issued his own statement Moderate On December 6, he disputed claims that he and his company wanted to shut down the Smash World Tour. , said he was facing “evacuation from his home by Doxing.”
Shortly after Bunny’s statement was released, SWT organizers said another statement It said it was “incredibly disappointed by the loose allegations directed at us” by Bunny. I am writing to say that I am looking forward to it. A prominent player in the Smash community has already taken issue with some of Bunny’s lengthy posts on his Twitter.
For Nintendo, The company issued a statement It was the Smash World Tour organizers’ own choice to cancel the 2022 finals, part of a statement said: The decision to cancel SWT 2022 was, and still is, their own choice.”
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Nintendo also said it would be open to licensing major tournaments outside of the Panda Cup. Nintendo told IGN it would love to see the grassroots community thrive.
Toph said he doesn’t necessarily believe the SWT situation will prevent unauthorized events from being held in the future.
“I think it’s going to be difficult because we got to have something really beautiful. Unfortunately, I think the way things happened rocked out in the worst possible way.”
SWT Cancellation Hits Smash Community
It’s a sticky situation as SWT, Nintendo, Panda and Bunney all have their say, and the Smash community mostly backs the organizers of the Smash World Tour. But looking across all the official statements and accusations, one fact at the heart of this whole situation is that the cancellation of the Smash World Tour has had a huge impact on the Smash community.
“This Smash World Tour in particular was the worst feeling I’ve ever felt,” Ax said. “Because people were planning this all year long, not just in America, but all over the world. People were coming from all sorts of different countries, all over the place, planning to go to this and it was canceled at the last minute. Like I say, this is probably the worst feeling [cancellation] In Smash history if you ask me. “
One player from another country is Ferps. He is one of Brazil’s top ultimate players and wants to be the top player in the world. In pursuit of that goal, his Smash Worlds tour was the perfect opportunity to test his mettle against powerhouses outside of Brazil.
“I love this game and I don’t care how long it takes to be the best player in the world. “Yes [SWT] It was super, super life changing for me because I don’t have the same type… [players in] Mexico, USA, or Japan have. “
Ferps had a seven-tournament winning streak in Brazil and was on his way to the Smash World Tour Championship. However, the road to the top became very difficult for Phelps after the event was cancelled.
“And when the news arrived, I was very sad…because it was all in vain,” said Ferps. “Travel costs a lot of money. I also have to travel inside Brazil, because there is no fighting scene in my area, and Brazil is very huge. And with that… it was really sad. ”
Stories like this can now be seen across the Smash community. Zain — considered one of the top players in the world — tweeted that the cancellation of the Smash World Tour had so much to do with his mental health that he was reconsidering his relationship with the game.
But Smash Bros.’s competitive scene has pretty much died before.
“I mean, I wish things were different, but this doesn’t stop Smash players from playing Smash. We’ve been around for 20 years…that.”
For now, Smash players are looking to an uncertain 2023. With the Smash Bros. World Tour off the calendar, the players we spoke to weren’t sure what events would or wouldn’t happen. But even with schedule uncertainty, one thing is certain: these players will continue to play.
“So, at least I don’t believe it, nobody can stop me from playing the game,” Ax said. “I’m a Super Smash Bros. Melee player. I love melee and never stop playing. It’s just me and I just want to share how great this game is with everyone. That’s what I’ve always wanted.” ‘I won’t let anyone stop me…that’s what I want to do. “
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over 6 years of experience in the games industry and has bylines for IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
