The Smash World Tour announced today that its next championship event and the 2023 World Tour were cancelled following Nintendo’s request for the event organisers not to proceed “without any warning.”
The Verge reports the championship tournament would be held between December 9-11.
Smash World Tour quoted that they had connected more than 6,400 live events around the world in 2022, with 325,000 participants. This made the Smash World Tour (SWT), the largest esports event in history for any game title.
It also stated that “The Championships would have had the largest prizepool in Smash history at more than $250,000,”
The offer was made after the Japanese gaming giant, Panda, announced the Panda Cup, which is its only licensed tournament circuit for Super Smash Bros. In collaboration with Panda esports company.
“They made clear that Pandaa’s partner was not exclusive. They said it hadn’t gone unnoticed they had not infringed upon their IP regarding game modification and had represented Nintendo’s value well,” stated the open letter to SWT.
In the statement, Panda CEO and Co-Founder Alan Bunney are accused of sabotage. Bunney misled tournament organizers about the cancellation of the event and said that no events from the Panda Cup would be allowed to take part on the Smash World Tour.
Nintendo replied to the SWT team with an open letter: “Unfortunately, following continuous conversations with Smash World Tour, as well as after giving the same deep thought we apply to any potential partners, we were not able to reach an agreement with SWT to host a complete circuit in 2023.
“Nintendo has not requested any changes or cancellations to the remaining events for 2022, including 2022 Championship event. This was due to the negative effect on the players who were planning to take part.”
According to the report, the Smash Tour estimates that the shutdown could cost hundreds of thousands of US dollars. However it assures attendees of cancelled events that they will receive their full refunds.