OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 12/02/2022
(5:35 AM PT)
Nintendo’s Official Statement (linked here) has been brought to our attention. We are again very confused at the angle that they are taking:
“When we notified the SWT that we would not license their 2022 or 2023 activities, we also let them know verbally that we were not requiring they cancel the 2022 finals event because of the impact it would have on players. Thus, the decision to cancel the SWT 2022 was, and still is, their own choice.”
We are struggling to understand why Nintendo contacted us at all last week if they truly wanted us to continue operating. We are struggling to understand why they would not simply reach out to us after our event, rather than rush to meet with us before the Thanksgiving holiday break, just two weeks before our Championships event.
Regardless, we stand by our first follow-up (linked here), and would like to reiterate that we received our notice in writing from Nintendo. We also received a direct response to our questions in our call about if we could continue to run the upcoming Championships and the 2023 Tour with the “unofficial” mutual understanding that we would not be shut down. We were told directly that those “times are over.”
And again, we would like to reiterate that in our call we asked Nintendo directly if they understood the impact of canceling both the upcoming Championships and the 2023 Smash World Tour. In particular, we brought up international players traveling to the Championships as well as multiple documentary teams. In response to this question, Nintendo responded that they were “confident that from A-Z, all consequences have been evaluated in making this decision,” specifically acknowledging that fallout scenarios included “some positive, some negative, and some really negative.”
We are also struggling to understand what Nintendo's statement means for tournament organizers in general, and the potential implications made about unlicensed events. Many organizers have already reached out to us asking if Nintendo’s response is a statement of “public permission” to run unlicensed events. We are wondering this as well.
However, maybe the most disappointing and concerning portion of Nintendo’s statement was this quote:
“Panda Global will continue to be a key partner and we look forward to receiving proposals from other groups for tournament licenses. In the meantime, Panda continues to advocate on behalf of the Super Smash Bros. community, even to the point that Panda has advocated for other organizations and tournaments to work with Nintendo, such as The Big House and the organizers of the SWT to benefit the larger Super Smash Bros. community.”
This is especially concerning given that Nintendo has been aware of Panda’s behavior for quite some time - so much so that they directly told us on multiple occasions that it would be addressed. Yet even after countless corroborating testimonies from other community leaders and organizers, Nintendo continues to back Panda as a “key partner” and claims that “Panda continues to advocate on behalf of the Super Smash Bros. community.”
We are incredibly grateful for all of the community support and corroboration regarding the truth of our claims. We understood it was a significant risk to come forward with all of this, but we feel now more than ever that it was absolutely necessary. Especially given this recent statement by Nintendo, we believe this may be one of the most important times the Smash community has ever faced.
We stand by our initial conclusion of our original statement (linked here): we urge Nintendo to please reconsider how they are proceeding in their approach to the Smash community, and to please re-evaluate their relationship with key partners who are causing so much damage.
