| Panda | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | United States 
|
| Owners | Alan Bunney (SamuraiPanda) David Wu (Mashumaro) |
| Sponsors/Partners | GEICO Vertagear Twitch Meta Threads Toshiba Funimation |
| Other games | Dragon Ball FighterZ Guilty Gear Xrd Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft Heroes of the Storm Marvel Vs. Capcom Mortal Kombat Splatoon Street Fighter TEKKEN |
Panda, formerly Panda Global (PG), is a professional eSports organization based in the United States. It was co-founded by Alan Bunney (SamuraiPanda) and David Wu (Mashumaro) in June 2015 as a player centric organization looking to help their players' careers, facilitate their goals, and promote the growth of the eSports scenes they participate in.
Panda entered the world of Smash on June 24th, 2015 with the sponsorship of Florida Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Smash 4 top players ESAM and MVD as well as Villager main SS[1]. On June 30th, Panda took their first step in Super Smash Bros. Melee by signing Florida-based Sheik player Plup[2]. On November 2nd, Panda signed the EVO 2013 Melee runner-up Wobbles[3]. On June 22nd, 2016, they picked up Ryu main Trela[4]. On June 30th, Alpharad joined the team as their content director[5].
On May 7th, 2016, Panda picked up Dom, Zan, and suar as a newly-formed subteam called PG Stats which specialises in Smash 4 statistics[6]. They are responsible for the Panda Global Rankings, a biannual list that ranks the Top 50 Smash 4 players in the world. Tetra, juddy[7], Giant[8], and Spike were later added to the PG Stats team, although Tetra and juddy later left.
In January 2017, following SS and Trela's departure from the organization, Panda added SoCal's best Mewtwo main Rich Brown to their Smash 4 team and expanded into Super Smash Bros. by picking up SuPeRbOoMfAn, the best player in North America and second best player in the world according to the 64 League Rankings[9]. On April 12th, 2018, Panda added MD/VA's best player Zain to their Melee team[10]. On July 26th, 2018, Panda added Corrin main Cosmos to their Smash 4 team[11].
On November 18th, 2021, Panda announced that they partnered with Nintendo to create the first officially licensed North American competitive circuit.[12] On May 26th, 2022, the circuit was officially announced as the Panda Cup.[13] It is taking place in June 24th-December 18th, 2022 and the featured games are Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
On November 29th, 2022, a Twitlonger from the Smash World Tour 2022 was published, alleging that Panda had leveraged their relationship with Nintendo to strong-arm tournament organizers into joining the Panda Cup circuit, threatening to shut down events in 2023. The twitlonger also alleged that they had played a significant role in the last-minute cancellation of the Smash World Tour 2022 Championships for Ultimate and Melee, claiming that CEO Alan Bunney had campaigned to have the circuit shut down. This caused significant backlash from the community, with several prominent figures criticizing the actions of Panda and Nintendo, including Cr1TiKaL, Ludwig, Sparg0, TKbreezy, Fatality, Hungrybox, iBDW, Maister, and Peanut. Following this, several players invited to the Panda Cup Finale backed out, including Lima, Deathspade, Fatality, Medz, Axe, Fiction, Joshman, and n0ne. On December 2nd, 2022, Panda put out a brief response to the allegations, which was largely criticized for lacking substance.[14] Following this, Plup and iBDW left the team and reflected in their social media statuses that they no longer desired association with Panda; WaDi would later express the same.
Current smashers
Pro smashers
| ID | Name | Game | Main(s) | Join Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
ESAM | Eric Lew | Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
    
|
2015-06-24 |
|
|
Marss | Tyler Martins | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | 
|
2019-03-22 |
|
|
WaDi | Chris Boston | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |  
|
2021-04-02 |
Other smashers
Alpharad 
(content director, joined June 30th, 2016)- Spike (PGstats designer)
- Dom
(PGstats writer, joined May 7th, 2016) - fyazko (content creator, joined June 2nd, 2016)
- Keith (lead graphics artist, project manager)
- PSI
(graphics artist) 
PracticalTAS (PGstats mathematician)- Tantalus (PG Tournament Organizer)
Stimpy 
(Actor Asa Butterfield, content creator)- Coney
(Creative Lead, commentator) - Kantrip
(Influencer) - Juggleguy
Little Z 
(Content creator)- FullStream
(Rivals of Aether player) - Jut
(Social media manager) - BobbyWasabi
(Video editor) - BOAT
(Merchandise coordinator) - Jackie Peanuts
(PGstats director) - VikkiKitty
(Commentator, content creator) - TKbreezy
(Commentator, content creator)
Former smashers
Pro smashers
| ID | Name | Game | Main(s) | Join Date | Leave Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
SS | Shane Bruce | Super Smash Bros. for Wii U |  
|
2015-06-24 | 2017-01-02 |
|
|
Trela | Alberto Miliziano | Super Smash Bros. Brawl Super Smash Bros. for Wii U |
 
|
2016-06-22 | 2017-01-02 |
|
|
Rich Brown | Rich Brown | Super Smash Bros. Brawl Super Smash Bros. for Wii U |
 
|
2017-01-17 | 2017-10-17 |
|
|
MVD | Jestise Negron | Super Smash Bros. Brawl Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
  
|
2015-06-24 | 2019-01-04 |
|
|
Wobbles | Robert Wright | Super Smash Bros. Melee | 
|
2015-11-02 | 2019-01-04 |
|
|
Zain | Zain Naghmi | Super Smash Bros. Melee | 
|
2018-04-12 | 2019-08-11 |
|
|
Cosmos | Brian Kalu | Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
 
|
2018-07-26 | 2019-08-11 |
|
SuPeRbOoMfAn | Daniel Hoyt | Super Smash Bros. |   
|
2017-01-17 | 2020-07-08 |
|
Prince | Unknown name | Super Smash Bros. | 
|
2019-07-19 | 2021-07-16 |
|
|
Plup | Justin McGrath | Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
     
|
2015-06-30 | 2022-12-02 |
|
|
iBDW | Cody Schwab | Super Smash Bros. Melee |
|
2020-05-05 | 2022-12-02 |
Other smashers
- Bear
(Team manager, tournament director, FGC manager) - suar (PG Stats director, joined May 7th, 2016)
- Zan
(PG Stats analyst, joined May 7th, 2016) 
Tetra 
(PG Stats, joined June 2nd, 2016)- juddy (PG Stats statistician, joined June 2nd, 2016)
- Chia
(Joined May 5th, 2020) - Simply
(Mario 64 speedrunner, content creator)
Other famous players
- Justin Wong (JWong) FGC
- Kyohei Lehr (MarlinPie) GGXrd
- Alexandre Dub-Bilodeau (Hayatei) MK11
- Bryant Benzing (Kitana Prime) MK11
- Jachin Harte (SKD) BBCF, BBTag
- Stephen Stafford (Speedkicks) Tekken 7
- Evan Towne (Rocketek) Splatoon
- Derek Bruscas (Nakkiel) Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Victor Woodley (Punk) SF5
- Keenan Kizzie (Kizzie Kay) GGXrd, SamSho19
- Faye Mata Voice Actor
- Anna Cramling Chess
PG Key
PG Key was an online tournament series organized by PG and directed by Bear. Each entry was a qualifier dedicated to a major offline tournament, with the winner being flown out as an honorary player temporarily sponsored by the organization.
| Tournament | Date | Entrants | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Key to The PG House | September 8th-18th, 2016 | 1994 | Wrath NA Mr.R EU |
Raffi-X NA Badr EU
|
| PG Key to GENESIS 4 | January 1st-5th, 2017 | 986 | Cosmos* |
Wrath*
|
| PG Key to Frostbite 2017 | February 12th-17th, 2017 | 740 | Cosmos* |
Zage
|
| PG Key to 2GGC: Civil War | March 5th-8th, 2017 | 620 | Sonido |
CaptainZack
|
| PG Key to Midwest Mayhem 8 | March 18th-30th, 2017 | 450 |  Sonix* |
lapis lazuli*
|
Gallery
Panda's former logo.
References
- ^ ESAM and MVD have officially signed with new esports team Panda Gaming!.
- ^ Plup joins Panda.
- ^ Panda signs Wobbles.
- ^ Panda signs Trela, will compete under team banner at CEO.
- ^ Alpharad joins Panda.
- ^ Panda announces new Smash 4 stats team.
- ^ juddy and Tetra join PG Stats.
- ^ Giant joins PG Stats as Lead Systems Engineer!.
- ^ Panda signs SuPeRbOoMfAn and Rich Brown.
- ^ Welcome to the Plup Club: Zain joins Panda!.
- ^ Introducing Panda's newest member, Cosmos!!.
- ^ Announcement of partnership
- ^ Panda Cup announcement
- ^ Panda's response