Nintendo Community Tournament Guidelines: Difference between revisions

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==Summary==

{{main|Super Smash Bros. in competitive play|Super Smash Bros. Melee in competitive play|Super Smash Bros. Brawl in competitive play|Super Smash Bros. 4 in competitive play|Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in competitive play}}

For the past 20 years, the ''Smash'' community has been developing its esports culture and has created some of the largest and highest attended events in the industry. Despite this, the community had not had any restrictions on its tournaments in the past, a double edged sword that has resulted in issues like the misconduct allegations, issues with alcohol and drugs, issues with police interventions and murder cases,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/Smashbro_Z/status/1062501637724418048|title=Z on X|date=November 14, 2018|publisher=Twitter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dexerto.com/smash/smash-player-banned-from-tournaments-for-allegedly-murdering-his-mother-1861165/|title=Smash Bros player banned from tournaments after being arrested over mother’s murder|date=July 1, 2022|publisher=Dexerto|author=Dylan Horetski}}</ref> and more. All of these developments have caught the attention of Nintendo, who are aware of the potential marketing a tournament large and small can hold, and now wish to provide regulations on how their product is handled publicly to avoid being associated with controversy and bad actors.

Many community members (including {{sm|Hungrybox}}) did a live read-through of the guidelines on stream.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vei4rEn6P_4|title=Nintendo's new guidelines WILL destroy tournaments|author=Hungrybox|publisher=YouTube|date=October 25, 2023}}</ref> Montana State Representative {{iw|wikipedia|Zooey Zephyr}} (and competitive ''Smash'' player under the tag {{sm|Cazcom}}) posted a tweet criticizing the new regulations, saying, "Imagine Bicycle Playing Cards insisting your home poker games be played a certain way or they'll sue you."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175508/https://twitter.com/zoandbehold/status/1716970531843444853|title=Rep. Zooey Zephyr on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175650/https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/17fsb9r/representative_zooey_zephyr_is_on_our_side/?rdt=38517|title=Representative Zooey Zephyr is on our side|publisher=Reddit}}</ref>

On the other hand, several players reacted more positively to the guidelines, with some mentioning security breach issues and major controversies that happened in some tournaments or within the community, such as the cancellation of Smash World Tour 2022 or the 2020 Super Smash Bros. sexual misconduct allegations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175508/https://twitter.com/Miss_JoyCon/status/1717166241230577751|title=NVR <nowiki>|</nowiki> Deathspade @ BLM on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175508/https://twitter.com/JonComms/status/1716852740096241914|title=Jon Cartwrighton on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref> YouTuber {{sm|Technicals}} notably reacted with pride, claiming it was "his perfect victory",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175508/https://twitter.com/Technicals_/status/1716910625996308689|title=Technicals on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025175508/https://twitter.com/Technicals_/status/1717269947154391041|title=Technicals on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref> which caused strong reactions from the community. In addition, many tournament organizers within the Japanese ''Smash'' community reacted with less skepticism. Within hours of the announcement, many prominent Japanese TOs came up with several solutions on how to deal with the guidelines.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/SchoolFromSean/status/1716835523468410904|title=Sean from School's Tweet on Japanese TOs|publisher=Twitter}}</ref>

Moon Channel, a lawyer YouTube channel, released a video<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exm8xCSQ9AY|title=A Lawyer Analyzes Nintendo’s Tournament Guidelines|author=VG Law Review|publisher=YouTube|date=October 27, 2023}}</ref> giving some legal analysis regarding the guidelines. He speculates that rather than necessarily "cracking down" on events, believing that they are more of an olive branch. With US copyright laws extending largely worldwide through trade agreements, its grey areas become problematic, resulting in less certainty and thus more regulation by the company is required; to illustrate this point, he cites Nintendo's hands-off approach with its fanbase in Japan. With Nintendo's uniformity in guidelines, it becomes reasonable to speculate that this isn't a crackdown a la fan games, but more of an IP protection measure. Moon Channel goes on to mention that while third party controllers are listed as banned in the guidelines, this is actually a commonality in most guidelines, and Nintendo's own End User Licence Agreements, and is not actually enforced, being used as, again, an IP protection measure; these aren't laws, but policy. Furthermore, he argues that these guidelines are for community tournaments rather than supermajor events, as stated in the guideline's introduction, and that by following these rules, it could aid in reconciliation between Nintendo and the ''Smash'' community at large. Thus, Moon Channel infers that they could result in a more stable community, criticizing big content creators for wanting to run unlicensed tournaments in protest, noting that while the full licence agreement hasn't been published, said licences being provided are discretionary.

==Aftermath==

Shortly after the announcement, the {{b|GENESIS|series}} team tweeted that {{Trn|GENESIS X}} would continue as scheduled.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025192123/https://twitter.com/genesis_smash/status/1716875076262592532|title=GENESIS on X|publisher=Twitter}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025180407/https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/17fitra/genesis_confirms_genesis_x_is_still_happening/?rdt=62641|title=Genesis confirms Genesis X is still happening|publisher=Reddit}}</ref> {{Trn|Sumabato|series}} head TO {{Sm|Nojinko}} also announced that he had secured licenses for the next ten Sumabato events within a day of the guidelines releasing,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twitter.com/nojinko_ike/status/1717198138266763528|title=Nojinko's announcement|publisher=Twitter}}</ref> leading some to have cautious optimism towards the change.

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