Smash World Tour canceled after TOs blindsided by Nintendo cease and desist
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When Nintendo of America partnered with Panda Global to launch the only officially licensed tournament circuit for Super Smash Bros. there were concerns about what this would mean for the independently run Smash World Tour circuit from VGBootCamp.
And, right as the series is heading into finals, those concerns were validated: Nintendo has levied what amounts to a cease and desist that will shut the operation down.
According to the SWT team, Nintendo—with no prior warning—delivered a notice the night before Thanksgiving last week essentially telling VGBC they can no longer operate their event. This was out of the blue for the team working on the tournament circuit and went against things they had heard in prior conversations.
“Without any warning, we received notice the night before Thanksgiving from Nintendo that we could no longer operate,” the SWT team said.
“This was especially shocking given our discourse with Nintendo [over] 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.”
Based on events from the SWT side of things, Nintendo was initially receptive to the circuit and even started talks of working to get it officially licensed, since the Panda Cup deal was not exclusive.
Things fell apart over the course of the last year though, with several delays in communication with Nintendo and allegations against Panda Cup regarding recruiting efforts that involved talk of events “being at risk” if they took part in the SWT rather than PC before a rule change was made on the side of Panda. This reportedly included Panda pushing for broadcast rights from existing organizers like Beyond the Summit for their events, and even allegedly threatening to get Nintendo involved to potentially shut down BTS’ Smash operations if they didn’t comply.
That didn’t end up happening and conversations on the side of Nintendo remained open though staggered due to a number of delays, despite the initial licensing proposal being completed and submitted back on April 9, that resulted in the SWT team having to move forward with plans for the finals.
“As a preface, we want to emphasize that there are some great people working at Nintendo who have been advocating for the Smash community and the Smash World Tour, even if that was not reflected in Nintendo’s recent actions,” the SWT team said.
“Likewise, we have nothing but the utmost respect for Panda’s team, players, ambassadors, employees, and contractors—many of which are our friends and are truly incredible people and, to our understanding, had little to zero knowledge of the damage Panda caused behind-the-scenes in the past year.”
On Nov. 23, the SWT team talked with a Nintendo rep that specifically stated the circuit is expected to only “operate with a commercial license” and that said license would not be granted for the 2022 Championship event in December or any activities in 2023—with Nintendo giving no specifics about the decision to the team to pair with that decision.
When asked specifically if they could continue operating the SWT independently for the 2022 Championships and the 2023 Tour itself while focusing on the partnership heading into 2023, Nintendo simply stated “those times were now over.” Nintendo also openly acknowledged it was expecting the backlash a cease and desist like this would cause within the community and esports as a whole.
Despite Nintendo’s apparent insistence the Panda Cup and SWT could, or maybe can, co-exist in the future, the promise of not gatekeeping the community and ensuring the license guidelines would be accessible and clear have seemingly reverted.
Over the last year, SWT has connected over 6,400 live events, 325,000 in-person entrants, and fans around the world together for the love of Smash Bros., making it the largest esports tour in history by those metrics and the largest Smash prize pool in history—the Tour pays out over $250,000 and the 2023 SWT planning to increase that to over $350,000.
The SWT team is currently operating as if the 2022 Championships and all plans for a 2023 tournament circuit will no longer be happening, with their current goal being to settle issues with all staff, contractors, and attendees regarding refunds and other arrangements.
With that in mind, the team behind the now-canceled SWT reiterate that the talks with Nintendo prior to the last few weeks still give them hope that the company wants to be transparent with licensing and will look at the response to this decision and how the relationship with the Smash community is impacted.
“This truly is an open letter: we genuinely are unsure of how much Nintendo is aware, and we are hoping that they will reconsider their approach to the grassroots community,” the SWT team said. “We all love this community SO much, and have tried to represent Nintendo well as we share that love with millions of fans worldwide.”