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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 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== | ||