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This started to change in the early 2000s with the creation of Smash World Forums (now [[SmashBoards]]) and [[GameFAQs]], which became major intersections for playing and discussing the ''Super Smash Bros.'' franchise. In Japan, sites such as Smarber-Garden and XMS were major avenues for its players to communicate{{ref|EarlyHistory}}. Larger tournaments also started to pop up around this time, with [[Matt Deezie]]’s short lived but influential [[Tournament Go]] series often considered a turning point. The competitive scene continued to grow with ''Melee''{{'}}s inclusion in professional tournament circuits such as MLG in 2006 and again at [[EVO]] in 2007{{ref|Melee@MLG}}.
This started to change in the early 2000s with the creation of Smash World Forums (now [[SmashBoards]]) and [[GameFAQs]], which became major intersections for playing and discussing the ''Super Smash Bros.'' franchise. In Japan, sites such as Smarber-Garden and XMS were major avenues for its players to communicate{{ref|EarlyHistory}}. Larger tournaments also started to pop up around this time, with [[Matt Deezie]]’s short lived but influential [[Tournament Go]] series often considered a turning point. The competitive scene continued to grow with ''Melee''{{'}}s inclusion in professional tournament circuits such as MLG in 2006 and again at [[EVO]] in 2007{{ref|Melee@MLG}}.


The creation of social media sites like [[Facebook]], [[YouTube]], and later [[Twitter]] and [[Twitch]], further expanded the community, as the ability to connect became easier than ever. This also turned figureheads of the community into celebrities, particularly well known competitive players. There were also instances of the entire community coming together to achieve a shared goal, with instances including the creation of the now discontinued [[Global Smasher Compendium]], a successful petition for ''Melee'' to be broadcast at EVO{{ref|EvoPetition}}, and the first unofficial community census in 2013.
The creation of social media sites like [[Facebook]], [[YouTube]], and later [[Twitter]] and [[Twitch]], further expanded the community, as the ability to connect became easier than ever. This also turned figureheads of the community into celebrities, particularly well known competitive players. There were also instances of the entire community coming together to achieve a shared goal, with instances including the creation of the [[Global Smasher Compendium]] (now discontinued), a successful petition for ''Melee'' to be broadcast at EVO{{ref|EvoPetition}}, and the first unofficial community census in 2013.


Nintendo themselves have also interacted with the community. Early examples include many members submitting [[Target Smash!]] and [[Home-Run Contest]] high [[score]]s as well user-generated content to the ''[[Brawl]]'' Smash Bros. [[Dojo]]!! while it was still being updated. Many tournaments have also been officially endorsed and sponsored by Nintendo. The community itself began partly being responsible for some of the changes and advents in later ''Smash Bros.'' titles, perhaps most notably with the [[Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot]], an official poll to allow fans to directly vote for characters they wanted to see in the series. The Ballot went on to influence a number of roster choices, such as [[Bayonetta]] in ''[[SSB4]]'' and [[Sora]] in ''[[Ultimate]]''.
Nintendo themselves have also interacted with the community. Early examples include many members submitting [[Target Smash!]] and [[Home-Run Contest]] high [[score]]s as well user-generated content to the ''[[Brawl]]'' Smash Bros. [[Dojo]]!! while it was still being updated. Many tournaments have also been officially endorsed and sponsored by Nintendo. The community itself began partly being responsible for some of the changes and advents in later ''Smash Bros.'' titles, perhaps most notably with the Super Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot, an official poll to allow fans to directly vote for characters they wanted to see in the series. The Ballot went on to influence a number of roster choices, such as [[Bayonetta]] in ''[[SSB4]]'' and [[Sora]] in ''[[Ultimate]]''.


Today, the ''Smash'' series has an incredibly large and diverse community behind it, arguably the largest community for any fighting game, and one of the few without major intervention from an outside entity. Tournaments of many types and sizes frequently occur around the world, all games have their own active modding scenes, and fans frequently discuss various topics relating to ''Smash'' for long periods of time. The community's growth and strength is commonly attributed to the series' fundamental nature as a crossover fighting game with a large volume of icons across gaming and its easy to pick up but difficult to master gameplay, allowing players across the gaming spectrum to come together regardless of their skill. It being a crossover also readily allows pre-established communities to come together and form a sense of camaraderie around sharing their own favorite series.
Today, the ''Smash'' series has an incredibly large and diverse community behind it, arguably the largest community for any fighting game, and one of the few without major intervention from an outside entity. Tournaments of many types and sizes frequently occur around the world, all games have their own active modding scenes, and fans frequently discuss various topics relating to ''Smash'' for long periods of time. The community's growth and strength is commonly attributed to the series' fundamental nature as a crossover fighting game with a large volume of icons across gaming and its easy to pick up but difficult to master gameplay, allowing players across the gaming spectrum to come together regardless of their skill. It being a crossover also readily allows pre-established communities to come together and form a sense of camaraderie around sharing their own favorite series.
==Relationship with Nintendo==
Nintendo has had historically rocky relationships with those that play their games competitively, but it is considered especially cumbersome with the competitive ''Smash'' community, due in part to series creator Masahiro Sakurai disliking the high entry floors that many fighting games are known for. Sakurai's decision to make ''Brawl'' a slower and more casual-friendly game compared to ''Melee'' was a particularly divisive issue, as many had come to relish how technical ''Melee'' gameplay had become. Many also accused him of being hypocritical, feeling that making a game enjoyable at all skill levels did not involve intentionally excluding a significant group of fans to attract others. Other fans believed it to be a necessary sacrifice due to the fact that the games' casual fanbase greatly out-scopes the game's competitive fanbase, pointing to ''Brawl'' becoming the best-selling fighting game, a title it held for over ten years, as evidence that it was overall the better decision.
Nintendo at first largely stayed out of competitive ''Smash'' affairs, only sponsoring and licensing a select few events throughout the years. As such, the community has developed a decentralized, grassroots approach to running tournaments, which has proven to be successful and is even considered one of its strengths, for it allows the community to work together to overcome adversity that comes their way. For instance, after the shutdown of {{Trn|Apex 2015}}'s original venue, players, spectators, and organizers alike worked together to avoid having to cancel the tournament altogether, ultimately succeeding once they were able to secure a new venue with the help of [[Twitch]]. This has also had the effect of creating hesitance to Nintendo getting further involved with the community, which many feel is a necessary step for ''Smash'' to become a legitimate eSport.
2013 marked the first major feud between the community and Nintendo when ''Melee'' was added to the main stage of {{Trn|EVO 2013}}, after ''Melee'' fans created the largest donation pool of any contender at over $94,000. Nintendo contacted EVO three days before the start of the event and issued a shutdown of {{Trn|EVO 2013}}'s ''Melee'' tournament livestream, which was itself a compromise made with EVO's organizers when Nintendo attempted to cancel the tournament entirely. The swift backlash that followed eventually caused Nintendo to reverse its decision hours later and allowed the tournament to proceed with impunity. This tournament, which is credited for raising interest in the ''Smash'' tournament scene, also led many companies and eSports organizations to turn their attention to ''Smash'', with them beginning to offer sponsorships for tournaments and players. ''Melee'' was featured at several EVO tournaments afterward, and ''Smash'' tournaments in general began drawing in more entrants than other traditional fighting games.
Nintendo subsequently increased their involvement with the scene, first by inviting several top players to the {{Trn|Super Smash Bros. Invitational}} at [[E3 2014]], then by offering partnerships with several major tournaments throughout the next few years, allowing ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' to thrive during its heyday. Although warmly welcomed by many community members, the community for ''[[Project M]]'', a [[mod]] of ''Brawl'' that intended to make the game more competitively friendly and began drawing more entrants than ''Brawl'' itself, did not feel the same way, for they were averse to letting Nintendo get involved if it mean they could not play their preferred ''Smash'' title in tournament again{{fact}}. Ultimately, ''Project M'' faced numerous {{H2|Project M|legal issues}} and eventually suspended development entirely, with members of the team saying it was done out of fear for legal ramifications of making a gray market product. Modders in general also did not want Nintendo getting further involved given their long history of taking down fan games and hacking projects lest they undergo a legal injunction.
During these times, the tournament scene continued to grow, especially with the release of ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'', which holds the record for largest ''Smash'' tournament at 3,534 entrants at {{Trn|EVO 2019}}. Thus, a movement began in earnest to make ''Smash'' a proper eSport, which would allow for even bigger tournaments with higher prize pools. Although the increased sponsorship revenue made this likely, many in the community argued it would never happen until Nintendo themselves began funding tournaments. Since 2019,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dexerto.com/apex-legends/ea-extremely-strict-rules-apex-legends-events-revealed-577623/|title=Apex Legends Tournament Guidelines Article|publisher=Dexerto|date=April 26, 2019|author=Connor Bennett}}</ref> various esports titles, such as those made by [[Capcom]] and Electronic Arts, have been receiving community guidelines for their tournament scenes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.capcomprotour.com/community-license/|title=Capcom Pro Tour Community Licence Guidelines|publisher=Capcom}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/compete/fgs-21/community-tournament-guidelines|title=FIFA 2021 Tournament Guidelines|publisher=Electronic Arts}}</ref> This is in response to a rise in eSports industry trends, with China notably seeing eSports grow beyond traditional sports in popularity and seeing government support.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/10/04/1080767/esports-china-asian-games-tencent/|title=MIT Technology Review on East Asian esports|publisher=Technology Review}}</ref> As such, Nintendo's increased involvement was seen as a signal that they were slowly working their way into doing so, especially with the release of the competitively oriented {{Uv|Splatoon}} games.
A significant blow to the idea of Nintendo supporting competitive ''Smash'' came with the announcement of the EVO Japan 2020 prize pool. In contrast to the other games which had large monetary prize pools, the top prize for ''Ultimate'' was a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, with Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa saying that Nintendo had no intention of giving tournaments large prize pools<ref>[https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-ceo-explains-decision-not-to-offer-esports-prize-money/ Video Games Chronicle - Nintendo president explains decision not to offer esports prize money]</ref>. Many players realized that Nintendo was less interested in supporting the tournament scene and more interested in using it as a marketing tool{{fact}}, emboldening the grassroots side of the scene, which intended on running the scene regardless of what Nintendo had to say about it.
In November of 2020, Nintendo ordered the [[cancellation of The Big House Online]] over its use of [[Project Slippi]] in the ''Melee'' tournament. This was heavily criticized by the community, with them arguing that Slippi was the only safe way to facilitate a ''Melee'' tournament amidst the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]. After an anonymous "informed ''Smash'' insider" published a [https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srfu4r Twitlonger] explaining Nintendo's history of inhibiting the ''Smash'' community, many other players and organizers came out with their own stories about their troubles with Nintendo, ultimately causing "#SaveSmash" to trend on Twitter. It even bled over into other communities, with a notable example being the finals of an official ''Splatoon'' tournament livestream being canceled likely due to several members having nametags that reference the movement in some way. This caused most of the teams to simply walk out and join a fan-made tournament, canceling the official finals. Many came to the consensus that letting Nintendo get involved would only hurt the community; as such, the announcement of the {{Trn|Panda Cup}}, an officially licensed North American circuit created with the partnership of Nintendo and [[Panda]], was met with equal parts excitement and skepticism. The latter mindset was further emboldened by the [[cancellation of Smash World Tour 2022]] after Nintendo refused to issue them a license to operate. Although Nintendo did not explicitly order its cancellation, the organizers interpreted their refusal to issue a license, and the fact they were not on the Panda Cup, as a legal threat and took what they believed was the safest course of action.
In October 2023, Nintendo released the [[Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines]], a series of guidelines placing restriction on small, non-profit tournaments run without a formal license. The announcement resulted in controversy in the community, with many accusing Nintendo for continuing to exert unnecessary control over the tournament scene. Some points of contention included the ban on unofficial accessories, inhibiting those with disabilities that use modified or custom controllers to play the game; the inability to provide attendees with comestible items; and the attendance cap of 200. The guidelines nevertheless developed many defenders, particularly those who saw it as setting standards that many other game companies had done for their competitive titles years prior, or merely as Nintendo filling up holes in their intellectual property protection. Several Japanese tournament organizers found ways to work with the guidelines, with {{Sm|Nojinko}}, head of the {{Trn|Sumabato|series}} series, being able to secure licenses for the next ten Sumabato events within a day of the guidelines releasing.


==Incidents==
==Incidents==
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These debates cropped up again with the announcement of ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', which the developers claimed would aim to strike a balance between the styles of ''Melee'' and ''Brawl''; while the decision to balance the two styles was lauded, discussion centered on which one of the styles it should lean more towards, or if it should attempt to strike a "golden mean" between them. The release of the game resulted in the discussion shifting to one between ''Melee'' and ''SSB4'', culminating in ''Melee'' players jeering at the game during Grand Finals at {{Trn|Apex 2015}}. While this divide has died down since then with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' praised by both sides as a good compromise between the two styles, and the two camps have even agreed to work together at times, animosity between them still remains.
These debates cropped up again with the announcement of ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', which the developers claimed would aim to strike a balance between the styles of ''Melee'' and ''Brawl''; while the decision to balance the two styles was lauded, discussion centered on which one of the styles it should lean more towards, or if it should attempt to strike a "golden mean" between them. The release of the game resulted in the discussion shifting to one between ''Melee'' and ''SSB4'', culminating in ''Melee'' players jeering at the game during Grand Finals at {{Trn|Apex 2015}}. While this divide has died down since then with ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'' praised by both sides as a good compromise between the two styles, and the two camps have even agreed to work together at times, animosity between them still remains.


===Community regulation===
===Community Vs. Nintendo===
Although the community's decentralized, grassroots approach to running tournaments has often been considered one of the community's strengths, it has also meant that regulating the community and setting standards is extremely difficult. The [[Unity Ruleset Committee]], which attempted to unite the heavily fragmented ''Brawl'' community by imposing a single ruleset and issuing infractions for undesired behavior, was often criticized for being too strict and only inflaming the problems they were meant to solve. Their attempt to ban the controversial {{SSBB|Meta Knight}}, who many players argued was [[broken]] for warping the metagame almost entirely around him, resulted in even more controversy; tournament organizers in regions with many Meta Knight players chose to ignore the URC's decisions to allow Meta Knight players to join and thus earn more profit, while other regions adopted the ban due to having very few Meta Knight players to speak of. The fracturing that the ban caused ultimately led to the URC to collapse and disband, leaving the decision of rulesets to each individual tournament organizer.
While the ''Smash'' community was created on a mutual passion for a series they cherish, many in the community have accused Nintendo for failing to appreciate what they helped cultivate.
 
As stated above, Sakurai's decision to make ''Brawl'' a slower and more casual-friendly game was a divisive issue, particularly among those that relished how technical ''Melee'' gameplay had become. Many also accused him of being hypocritical, feeling that making a game enjoyable at all skill levels did not involve intentionally excluding a significant group of fans to attract others. Other fans believed it to be a necessary sacrifice due to the fact that the games' casual fanbase greatly out-scopes the game's competitive fanbase, pointing to ''Brawl'' becoming the best-selling fighting game, a title it held for over ten years, as evidence that it was overall the better decision.
 
While, as a grassroots community, many community members express animosity at the idea of Nintendo intervening in the competitive scene, there had never been any major feuds between them until the lead-up to {{Trn|EVO 2013}}. After a massive push to add ''Melee'' as a main stage event, fans created the largest donation pool of any contender at over $94,000. However, Nintendo contacted EVO three days before the start of the event and blocked the game from being played. The swift and intense backlash from this decision was enough for Nintendo to reverse their decision, and ''Melee'' enjoyed a main stage presence for several years afterwards.
 
As with most other Nintendo game communities, Nintendo has targeted those [[mod]]ding or hacking the games, forcing community members to take down hacking projects lest they undergo a legal injunction. The highest profile example is [[Project M]], a mod that gained significant traction in the competitive scene, to the point of major tournaments hosting brackets specifically for the mod and its scene eclipsing that of ''Brawl'', the very game it modded. The mod ceased active development on December 1, 2015, with members of the team saying it was done out of fear for legal ramifications of making a gray market product.


The lack of a regulatory body has also enabled many undesired behaviors, such as substance abuse<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/Smashbro_Z/status/1062501637724418048|title=Z on X|date=November 14, 2018|publisher=Twitter}}</ref>, to infest the community. The [[SSB Code of Conduct Panel]] was created in 2018 to impose punishments for players caught engaging in these behaviors, although they too would be embroiled in controversy for their handling of these situations. For instance, they recommended the unbanning of {{Sm|Mafia}}, who had been accused of sexual harassment<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20170712214240/http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sq18m8</ref>, after he sought therapy and self-remedies to better himself<ref>https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqpn8k</ref>. The recommendation was roundly criticized by the community, and a panel of 23 tournament organizers appealed to keep him banned<ref>https://twitter.com/SSBConductPanel/status/1088839277138583552</ref>. The panel ultimately disbanded in December 2020 after the misconduct allegations published in July of that year, which themselves were seen as a symptom of the community's continued lack of regulation, left them overwhelmed, with them claiming it would take them years to sort through all the claims<ref>https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1srgobs</ref>. An attempt by tournament organizer Cagt to keep problematic people out of tournaments with the Global Ban Database also fell apart in 2022 over issues he had in managing it.
Another major example is the [[cancellation of The Big House Online]]. Before the tournament could begin, Nintendo wrote a cease-and-desist letter to the venue, forcing the event to be shut down. The reason given was that the online aspect forced the ''Melee'' bracket to resort to emulators like [[Dolphin]] and [[Project Slippi]], which Nintendo openly disapproves of. This spawned #FreeMelee, and later #SaveSmash, to trend across the internet with enough traction to be picked up by famous influencers and news outlets. It even bled over into other communities, with a notable example being the finals of an official ''Splatoon'' tournament livestream being canceled likely due to several members having nametags that reference the movement in some way. This caused most of the teams to simply walk out and join a fan-made tournament, canceling the official finals.


As ''Smash'' continued to grow as an eSport, many fans believed the community needed to find some way of addressing these issues or Nintendo would do it themselves, which eventually occurred with the publishing of the Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines, sparking further controversy.
In October 2023, Nintendo released the [[Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines]], a series of guidelines placing restriction on small, non-profit tournaments run without a formal license. The announcement resulted in controversy in the community, with many accusing Nintendo for continuing to exert unnecessary control over the tournament scene. Some points of contention included the ban on unofficial accessories, inhibiting those with disabilities that use modified or custom controllers to play the game; the inability to provide attendees with comestible items; and the attendance cap of 200. The guidelines also developed many defenders, particularly those who saw it as setting standards that many other game companies had done for their competitive titles years prior, or merely as Nintendo filling up holes in their intellectual property protection. Several Japanese tournament organizers found ways to work with the guidelines, with {{Sm|Nojinko}}, head of the {{Trn|Sumaboto|series}} series, being able to secure licenses for the next ten Sumabato events within a day of the guidelines releasing.


===Widespread DDoS attacks on community sites===
===Widespread DDoS attacks on community sites===
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{{See also|Team:Panda|Tournament:Panda Cup#Controversy|Tournament:Smash World Tour 2022#Behind-the-scenes and cancellation|Cancellation of Smash World Tour 2022}}
{{See also|Team:Panda|Tournament:Panda Cup#Controversy|Tournament:Smash World Tour 2022#Behind-the-scenes and cancellation|Cancellation of Smash World Tour 2022}}


In November 2022, the then upcoming and highly anticipated tournament [[Smash World Tour]] suddenly [https://medium.com/@smashworldtour/smash-world-tour-official-statement-f568a3d135c8 announced] that their tournament would be canceled at the last minute. Their reasons for doing so were that despite productive conversations with Nintendo months earlier claiming they would not be shut down, the company came to them and said they will not grant an official license for the tournament and, in response to if SWT can still run their tournament without a license, Nintendo stated "those times are over." SWT took this as an indirect threat of legal action if they continued and felt forced to shut themselves down. Due to not receiving a license and being barred from receiving any license in 2023, SWT organizer [[VGBootCamp]] also shut down all of their major 2023 tournaments, including Glitch: Duel of Fates and Double Down. While Nintendo spoke to Kotaku defending themselves by stating they did not specifically request the tournament to be shut down, SWT would rebutt with written evidence to back their claims.
In November, 2022, the then upcoming and highly anticipated tournament [[Smash World Tour]] suddenly [https://medium.com/@smashworldtour/smash-world-tour-official-statement-f568a3d135c8 announced] that their tournament would be canceled at the last minute. Their reasons for doing so were that despite productive conversations with Nintendo months earlier claiming they would not be shut down, the company came to them and said they will not grant an official license for the tournament and, in response to if SWT can still run their tournament without a license, Nintendo stated "those times are over." SWT took this as an indirect threat of legal action if they continued and felt forced to shut themselves down. Due to not receiving a license and being barred from receiving any license in 2023, SWT organizer [[VGBootCamp]] also shut down all of their major 2023 tournaments, including Glitch: Duel of Fates and Double Down. While Nintendo spoke to Kotaku defending themselves by stating they did not specifically request the tournament to be shut down, SWT would rebutt with written evidence to back their claims.
 
In the same document, SWT also explained the involvement of esports organization Panda, specifically CEO Alan Bunney, in this situation. Unlike SWT, their own Panda Cup was officially licensed and sponsored by Nintendo. Panda Cup had an exclusivity clause where all tournaments participating in their circuit could only participate with them and no one else. The document claimed that throughout 2022, Alan would approach tournaments that expressed interest in joining SWT and tried to convince them to join the Panda Cup instead. If they refused, Alan would insinuate that Nintendo might shut them down in the near future. This led to allegations that Alan had convinced Nintendo to follow his orders and used them as a protection racket to monopolize the competitive scene. The highest profile example of this was [[Beyond the Summit]] refusing to surrender the broadcasting rights despite direct threats from Alan, forcing Panda to lift their exclusivity clause.
 
The ensuing fallout led to heavy backlash against Panda and Alan. Many other tournament organizers came out to corroborate these allegations, including Panda themselves confirming the incident with BTS. Alan also stepped down as CEO of Panda, though remained a majority share holder. Alan then made a [https://medium.com/@alan_43400/my-statement-3a66fd37978a personal response] detailing his side of the story that was widely criticized and rebutted by many members of the community. This saga caused a majority of Panda sponsored individuals to cut ties with the organization or vow to cut ties when their contract expires, resulting in a brain drain and putting the future of the organization into question.


Later analyses of the situation led to heightened criticism of VGBC, with many arguing that their actions jeopardized a chance to turn ''Smash'' into a legitimate eSport and irreversibly damaged correspondence with Nintendo, and criticizing the sustained harassment many Panda employees experienced and VGBC inadvertently instigated. Many would also go on to argue that VGBC brought the situation upon themselves, seeing as they were unable to secure a license despite Nintendo initiating correspondence with them, and feeling that Nintendo's statement of their lack of adherence to their health and safety guidelines was visible in the insufficient security at their events, particularly at {{Trn|Double Down 2022}} which saw {{Sm|Technicals}}, who was banned from the venue, sneaking in during grand finals due to the security detail turning in for the night<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqgRuostPA thefranChise - "The UNSOLVED Mystery of Smash World Tour"]</ref>. Alan would go on to state on the Lights Out podcast that the fallout led to the shutdown of Nintendo's IP licensing department, and eventually led them to create the Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines after an internal restructure<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2DpSz8mpuA&t Dr Alan Reveals EVERYTHING That Happened w/ Panda! | Lights Out Episode 36]</ref>.
In the same document, SWT also explained the involvement of esports organization Panda, specifically CEO Alan Bunney, in this situation. Unlike SWT, their own Panda Cup was officially licensed and sponsored by Nintendo. Panda Cup had an exclusivity clause where all tournaments participating in their circuit could only participate with them and no one else. The document claimed that throughout 2022, Alan would approach tournaments that expressed interest in joining SWT and tried to convince them to join the Panda Cup instead. If they refused, Alan would insinuate that Nintendo might shut them down in the near future, which happened several times. This implies that Alan had convinced Nintendo to follow his orders and used them as a protection racket to monopolize the competitive scene. The highest profile example is [[Beyond the Summit]] refusing to surrender the broadcasting rights despite direct threats from Alan, forcing Panda to lift their exclusivity clause. Many other tournament organizers came out to corroborate these allegations, including Panda themselves confirming the incident with BTS. Alan also stepped down as CEO of Panda while still being a majority share holder. Alan then made a [https://medium.com/@alan_43400/my-statement-3a66fd37978a personal response] detailing his side of the story that was widely criticized and rebutted by many members of the community. This saga caused a majority of  Panda sponsored individuals to cut ties with the organization or vow to cut ties when their contract expires, resulting in a brain drain and putting the future of the organization into question.


==See also==
==See also==

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