Smash has been smashed

 Decency has left the game!

I make no secret of the fact that I do not, in any way, follow E-sports. I find the games that thrive in teh scene rather dull to spectate with competitors typically employing the exact same high level strategies and counters again and again from one match to the next, unless we're talking about well-made fighting game competitions as those tournaments tend to be a bit more diverse and interesting. But after two years of joke-predicting the winners of the Game of the Year E-sports categories, I can report that my level of migration into that community has not changed or evolved in the slightest. What has changed, however, is the standing that E-sporting world currently has as a respected medium when very recently the biggest, and most loved, Super Smash Bros tournament got itself suddenly and abruptly cancelled out of the blue when big-bad Nintendo decided to get out of their way to murder it's impending big event and kill next year's one in the same statement. Although this wasn't just a Nintendo screw-up this time, as much as well all want it to be.

You see, Nintendo have well established for themselves the role of being the 'Disney of gaming' so much that they actively try to twist their own morals to be as evil of a company they can manage in shooting for that Disney benchmark. They've already got a bit of a headstart, manufacturing and distributing Hanafuda cards at a very specific point in Japan's legislative history in order to get around gambling laws for the benefit of the Yakuza is a pretty big tilt towards the red-side of the morality board right off-the-bat. But modern Nintendo absolutely love the idea of stepping on the spirit of their fans much more than funding organised crime, maybe even throwing out a few overzealous lawsuits if they're feeling spicy that morning. Basically, unless old man Nintendo has his fingers digging into the thorax of some poor starving artist who committed the crime of tracing over Mario to make his own artwork, the Big N just doesn't feel right with himself. Nintendo yearns to see it's fans in pain, it desires grief-stricken fans more than anything else in life. But, somehow, they did maintain something of a blindspot.

For years when it came to fans hosting tournaments for Nintendo games there was a balancing act of both sides knowing fully about each but just pretending each other doesn't exist. Nintendo has terminal 'slap a baby' syndrome so no one really wants to seek out their endorsement, and Nintendo knows organisers only stand to lose money hosting these events mostly for the fun of their game of choice and as Nintendo likes to see their fans suffer, it was in their best interest not to get involved. Anytime Nintendo did speak up, it was typically at the worst possible time for event organisers and a it was a decree to shut the whole thing down. But if Nintendo thinks you'll go destitute and homeless quicker by letting the event run, they'll do it. Perfect twisted harmony between the community of Nintendo lovers and the sadistic misanthropes who silently observe them. An unbreakable balance between predators stalking their nervous prey standing alone in a field. In many ways, it really was just a wait between how long grass-routes tournament runners could continue before the hammer swung down and the Nintendo Stormtroopers blitzed the villages looking for skulls to cracks. And today is that day.

The 'Smash World Tour' tournament, less than two weeks for ramping up, was bought the knock-out blow from Nintendo after the company affirmed that 'grass routes' competitions that don't sign up for the Nintendo approval process (A 'very expedient' service that run you anywhere from one week to six months depending on how heartless the big N is feeling on the day you submit) are a thing of the past. From now on it's Nintendo approved or nothing. And, of course; Nintendo approved means that those white gloves are going to be assuming ownership of these events, so the organisers running them have to be extra careful not to accidentally do anything that the eldritch list of unforgivable Nintendo sins outlaws, otherwise those gloves will move to snapping the spines of those entrepreneuring fans. Because that's what you really want from your fans; for them to feel threatened when interacting with you to a horrifying degree such that they can't enjoy the event for how deliberately they have to act lest they wake the braying dragon.

But again, this isn't all about Nintendo. This is also the story about a man named Alan, CEO of an Esports collective called Panda who are hosting their own Smash Bros tournament. Only the thing is with his event; Nintendo actually officially endorsed his efforts. Of course, Nintendo were also in contact with the Smash World Tour organisers, promising them that their event could co-exist with the Panda event; but there was someone who wasn't happy with the prospect of two big Smash events. Probably drawing from the fact that the World Tour has more of a draw and a bigger potential for viewership. That man was Alan, and he went about airing his grievances with Nintendo's laxness in a manner that neatly explains why it is that Nintendo saw their hosting partner in his hands. He, allegedly, committed in widescale strong-arming!

According to several different event organisers who were partnered with the World Tour, this Alan reached out to them in order to warn them that the World Tour was due to be shut down by Nintendo, and that they needed to sign up with the Panda event or else they'd by shut down too. Alan also wanted exclusivity deals with events, which he later rescinded after very few organisers were willing to stab someone they already had a partnership with in their metaphorical back. Alan flaunted his official endorsement by Nintendo to enforce his own dominance as the only person who should be allowed to run a Smash Tournament and when that failed to make the splash that he wanted, suddenly out of nowhere Nintendo decided to go back on verbal assurances they'd already made and shut down the Smash World Tour. It seems like there's a missing puzzle piece there, doesn't it? And maybe the sort of piece that only a guy called 'Alan' could fill in for us.

It has been a sad direction for the Esports relationship between Nintendo and it's fans to evolve; not least of all because the competitive Smash scene has been built entirely without any involvement or help from Nintendo ever since Melee released. Then, the very first time that Nintendo decides to partner with someone, not only does it turn out to be a guy who reminds them of their old Yakuza customer base, but it's then immediately used as a springboard through which Nintendo can police who gets to have fun playing their games. Literally a boot down on the concept of grass routes fandom that birthed a community around a set of games that Nintendo are profiting from. There is no reason, beyond overly protective brand practises, to start slapping down the fans like this.

Needless to say, as all this caused a schism to form amidst the Smash community. A lot of people aren't happy signing up to a tournament run by a bully, and considering Smash tournaments aren't exactly a huge consistent money maker for really anybody out there, they don't have a huge financial commitment to file away any moral compunctions. It's kind of like another sporting competition that has suffered huge controversy around it nowadays, only with far less stakes and no washed-up ex-footballer selling his soul to be the marketing arm of deeply troubling human rights violations. But that Nintendo have even managed to make themselves lightly comparable to the 2022 Football world cup is absolutely wild. Leave it to Nintendo to be their own worst PR rep.