Smash World Tour Official Statement

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Smash World Tour
14 min readNov 29, 2022

Introduction

How We Got Here

Panda Cup

The Shutdown

Conclusion

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 11/29/2022

INTRODUCTION

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.

The truth is, what makes this all even more disappointing is the approach Nintendo took in recent weeks compared to our discourse with them over the past twelve months. We truly believed things were progressing positively for quite some time.We had kept all of this progress quiet, but especially in light of both Nintendo’s and their partner Panda’s actions this year, we wanted to take the opportunity to write an “open letter” to Nintendo, as we don’t know how much the higher ups at Nintendo are even aware of the history and context of the last few years. In recent months, we have requested multiple times to communicate with them directly, but these requests were not granted.

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. 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.

HOW WE GOT HERE

Ironically, we thought there was a chance that last year’s Smash World Tour Championships (and the Tour overall) were going to be shut down. In November 2021, after the Panda Cup was first announced, Nintendo contacted us to jump on a call with a few folks on their team, including a representative from their legal team. We truly thought we might be getting shut down given the fact that they now had a licensed competing circuit and partner in Panda.

Once we joined the call, we were very surprised to hear just the opposite.

Nintendo reached out to us to let us know that they had been watching us build over the years, and wanted to see if we were interested in working with them and pursuing a license as well. They made it clear that Panda’s partnership was not exclusive, and they said it had “not gone unnoticed” that we had not infringed on their IP regarding game modifications and had represented Nintendo’s values well. They made it clear that game modifications were their primary concern in regards to “coming down on events”, which also made sense to us given their enforcement over the past few years in that regard.

That lengthy conversation changed our perspective on Nintendo at a macro level; it was incredibly refreshing to talk to multiple senior team members and clear the air on a lot of miscommunications and misgivings in the years prior. We explained why so many in the community were hesitant to reach out to Nintendo to work together, and we truly believed Nintendo was taking a hard look at their relationship with the community, and ways to get involved in a positive manner.

We went into 2021’s Championships a lot more confident, but we were still skeptical to take what they said at face value given Nintendo’s history with the community. We specifically held off announcing 2022’s Smash World Tour at that event, per the request of Nintendo. 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.

However, we quickly found that many organizers were concerned about joining up in 2022. They told us that they had been told by Alan, the CEO and co-founder of Panda, that we were going to get shut down and were not coming back in 2022.

Of course, this directly contradicted our conversations with Nintendo, but we felt we could not defend ourselves properly to organizers because we felt that our conversations with Nintendo should be kept private until we had our seemingly imminent licensing deal. So, we decided to approach Nintendo with this very issue directly, explaining the attempted sabotage that was going on and our inability to speak freely.

Nintendo was very sympathetic to our situation, and reassured us on a few counts:

  1. They reminded us and reassured us that Nintendo is only looking to shutdown IP infringement related to game mods, and not the unlicensed Smash World Tour.
  2. That the Panda CEO does not represent Nintendo, and that they would have to have a conversation with him about his behavior.
  3. They reminded us and reassured us that Panda’s license is not exclusive, and that they can see the two circuits co-existing.
  4. They reminded us that Nintendo’s goal was not to gatekeep or trap the community, and that license guidelines would be accessible and clear.

This call again bolstered our confidence overall, not only in what we were building with the Smash World Tour, but in Nintendo’s approach and potential trajectory in working with the community long-term. We were excited to invest more into that community. It was around this time as well (in late January) when we submitted our license application for 2022, after working with Nintendo to best meet their specifications.

Unfortunately, the attempts from Panda to undermine the Smash World Tour did not stop, as the CEO continued to tell organizers we were definitely not coming back in 2022, and if we did, we’d get shut down shortly after announcement.

Furthermore, organizers were told that their individual events would also be at risk if they were on the Smash World Tour. A few organizers told us this directly as the primary reason that they did not participate in the Tour this year, which we completely understood. We did not want organizers to feel like it would add any risk to be on the Smash World Tour, even if we believed that behind-the-scenes everything was okay based on what Nintendo had told us directly.

Nintendo’s response to our application came slowly, which did not surprise us. They reached out in March, a few days before our announcement — and we went back and forth on the feasibility of the scope, especially since our Tour was global and Nintendo of America would have to coordinate with other Nintendo teams. We kept Nintendo in the loop of our announcement plans, but we understandably ran out of time for the formal license. Still, we relied on our other conversations with Nintendo and pressed forward with the 2022 Tour.

This caused our application to go into limbo, and that a “decision could not be made at this time,” since we did not have the full scope of our proposal sorted with Nintendo in advance. Again, we knew timelines were going to be difficult and that we were building something very long-term. We discussed other approaches and ideas, and eventually Nintendo recommended at this stage to apply for a single event license for our December championships, which would also help get the ball rolling to start working on 2023, with a much longer lead time.

PANDA CUP

Around this same time, Panda Cup began heavily recruiting events for their circuit. The CEO continued to tell organizers we would be getting shut down shortly, and also added that any events that participated in the Panda Cup would not be allowed to be on the Smash World Tour. This exclusivity surprised us, not only because of our Nintendo conversations regarding “co-existing”, but also because we were not exclusive, and even back in January, we told organizers that they could be on both with zero issues from us.

At first, Panda targeted events that were not on the Smash World Tour (including those who did not join because of the aforementioned warnings). A few of these events had broadcast deals with a popular tournament broadcaster, Beyond the Summit (BTS). The CEO of Panda wanted broadcasting rights to be included as part of the deal of the events joining the Panda Cup. Most of the events refused to break their contracts, so Panda approached Beyond the Summit directly to try to get the rights released.

BTS had very little motivation to give up the broadcast rights for free, so they declined to get involved, causing the CEO of Panda to escalate things quickly. We were told he made a variety of threats to Beyond the Summit, including shutting down their entire Smash operation in 2023 if they did not eventually join Panda Cup. After BTS held firm, the CEO of Panda warned that they would get Nintendo directly involved, putting broadcast rights for all tournaments in jeopardy.

In the end, most events with Beyond the Summit broadcasting contracts chose to side with Beyond the Summit and did not join the Panda Cup after all of the turmoil.

During all of this, we still kept an open line of communication with Nintendo as we prepared our submission for our Championships event. We also expressed our serious concern about how Panda was talking to community organizers and their lack of ethics in how they approached Beyond the Summit. We felt a line had been crossed that could not be ignored. Again we were reassured that the CEO of Panda does not speak for Nintendo, and that they are frustrated with all of the fracturing happening behind the scenes due to his behavior.

We also discussed strategy in submitting our new application for the December event, including potentially changing the name of the Smash World Tour and if that would be beneficial. We cannot get into specifics of license requirements due to our NDA with Nintendo, but again, Nintendo was very helpful in the preparation process and we were on the right track to submit again, this time with many months of lead time. We submitted our proposal on April 9th, 2022.

After many events declined, Panda had no choice but to pursue events that were already on the Smash World Tour, meaning they would have to drop off the Smash World Tour midseason to join Panda Cup. For many organizers, this was a dealbreaker, as they saw no reason that their event could not have points count towards both circuits. They were also concerned that more fracturing could occur.

At this point, Panda Cup was not left with many events for their circuit. However, at some point in April, the exclusivity “rule” changed and events became eligible to be on both the Smash World Tour and the Panda Cup. Additionally, multiple events were then issued Nintendo licenses very quickly, after the events were publicly announced. This caught us by surprise because we were repeatedly told by Nintendo that this “was not possible.” All of these instances were a great demonstration of the “rules for thee, but not for me” umbrella we felt we were under.

The Panda Cup was finally announced on May 26th, 2022. Our communications slowed down dramatically with Nintendo, since at this point all we were waiting for were the next steps regarding our December Championships and beginning talks for the 2023 Smash World Tour. Nintendo was very slow to respond to our many bumps, even though they were aware that we submitted in early April with the intention of announcing the event in July, giving more than enough time for a decision or a discussion on next steps using the timeframes they provided to us. We continued to push back the announcement for the Championships in the hopes that following Nintendo’s directives would help our relationship in planning for 2023.

After no response for months, we felt that we had no choice but to announce the Championships in August. Nintendo finally responded and mentioned another event that had their team incredibly busy, which is why there were delays. They were very apologetic for the long silence and said they completely understood that we had to announce. They mentioned that discussions have been much slower than expected and that there had not been any decision yet. After continued delays in communication, we finally reconvened with Nintendo at the end of September, nearly four months after our submission.

Nintendo once again re-assured us nothing had been decided yet, and apologized for how long the process had taken. They also reminded us that the Panda Cup execution, relationship, and the behavior of the CEO were all under evaluation, and it created a very complex situation, which Nintendo could not react to quickly. We raised concerns from organizers who were concerned about Panda being involved next year as well as the future of the Smash World Tour. We offered to sit down with whoever else it may be beneficial to talk to, since there are many decision makers involved at Nintendo, many of which do not have full context and may see us as “the guys who announced without a license.” Nintendo said things were “getting out of hand” regarding the timeline, and that they will try to get the conversations progressing again. We were frustrated, but we still had no concerns about operating the Smash World Tour, just about whether we’d be able to obtain a license and actively work with Nintendo on building in the community.

THE SHUTDOWN

We were not able to reconvene with Nintendo again until November, nearly seven months after our application submission. At this point we were only one month out from the Championships, and we pressed Nintendo a bit harder on how things were progressing. They said it had been a very complex issue navigating the planning for commercial licensing, but they were very empathetic to us feeling “back burnered,” especially given the context of Panda Cup’s messy inception and execution.

Nintendo told us that there are many decision makers involved, and some have been advocating very hard for the community, the Smash World Tour, and the importance of the relationship to grassroots organizers. We again requested an opportunity to potentially meet with some of the other decision makers. We were worried that they did not know the full context of what had taken place this year. Nintendo said they will see what they can do, and that we should continue to meet regularly to discuss future planning.

Finally, last Wednesday evening (November 23rd), we had our most recent call with Nintendo. Our Nintendo rep opened by letting us know that they are being asked to deliver the news that going forward, Nintendo expects us to only operate with a commercial license, and that we would not be granted one for the upcoming Championships, or any activity in 2023. We received this in writing as well.

We asked if they could clarify the reasoning for their decision. Initially, Nintendo gave us a reason that seemed to be misinformed, and when we pushed back to ask for more details, Nintendo said they were unable to give any specifics and had to speak in generalities moving forward. This was very frustrating given everything we had been told all year regarding accessibility and transparency in requirements. It felt as though Nintendo simply did not want the Smash World Tour to continue to exist. At this point, we now felt we had been strung along this entire time.

As a last ditch effort, we asked if we could continue running the Championships and the Tour next year without a license, and shift our focus to working with them in 2024. We alluded to how the last year functioned in that capacity, with a mutual understanding that we would not get shut down and focus on the future. We were told directly that those times were now over. This was the final nail in the coffin given our very particular relationship with Nintendo. This is when we realized it truly was all being shut down for real. We asked if they understood the waves that would be made if we were forced to cancel, and Nintendo communicated that they were indeed aware.

Since this took place the night before Thanksgiving, it was incredibly difficult to process this completely unexpected bombshell, and we’ve been working around the clock ever since. Once again, we want to apologize to every single person affected by this, including the players, staff, contractors, organizers and fans — we also apologize for any of those who we could not communicate with these past few days. As you can imagine, this was an enormous decision that was not taken lightly, and we had a lot to prepare to get everything sorted, we did not want to risk any premature leaks. We worked to get this statement out as quickly as possible, and we will be in touch with all staff, contractors, and attendees regarding refunds, helping with travel arrangement changes, etc.

CONCLUSION

To reiterate, we are incredibly devastated that any of this happened, and given the trajectory of Nintendo, we were truly hopeful that significant, positive change was inbound. However, the way the last few weeks have unfolded, we are extremely worried that all of that progress has been abruptly reversed.

We understand that we are taking a massive risk by even sharing all of the above details, our goal is not to burn bridges, or make an exposé on Nintendo.

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. We all love this community SO much, and have tried to represent Nintendo well as we share that love with millions of fans worldwide.

Nintendo originally communicated that their goals were to make both community and commercial licensing accessible and transparent in regards to requirements (like many other game publishers), and to not function as a deterrent to tournament organizers. They also made it clear that their goal was to not shut anything down unless violations were made against IP utilizing game modifications and things of that nature.

Now it has reverted back to being very secretive, with no clear guidelines, and a willingness to abruptly shut down community efforts even after giving many indications that would not happen.

To close, we ask that Nintendo reconsiders how it is currently proceeding with their relationship with the Smash community, as well as its partners. We are always open to continuing the conversation, and we hope we can be a part of the solution.

-Smash World Tour

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