Tournament:Panda Cup

The Panda Cup was a Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament circuit organized by and was the first North American Super Smash Bros. circuit officially licensed by Nintendo. The circuit began on June 24th, 2022 and was planned to conclude on December 18th, 2022. The championships was planned to be held on December 16th-18th, 2022, with a Last Chance Qualifier held on December 15th, 2022, but the date was postponed on December 5th, 2022, and eventually confirmed to be cancelled on November 23rd, 2023. There was going to be a pot prize starting at $100,000.

Format


32 players in each game qualified for the finale through four different ways:

1. Featured Community Stops: 11 offline tournaments featured as community stops had totals of 16 players qualifying for Melee and 18 players qualifying for Ultimate. The number of qualifying spots for each tournament ranged from 1 to 3 players. 6 tournaments were qualifiers for both games, was a qualifier for Melee only, and, , and  were qualifiers for Ultimate only.

2. Panda Cup Online Qualifiers: 8 players qualified through online tournaments for Ultimate only. There were 8 regions, with 4 qualifiers and a regional final for each. Points were distributed to the Top 96 of each qualifier, with the Top 32 of each region's leaderboard invited to the regional finals. Players were removed from Top 32 eligibility based on DQs, meaning the Top 32 indicated by points may not have been final. In the event of a tie in points for the regional finals spots, all of the tied players would be invited into the regional finals, even if it meant more than 32 players would make up the bracket. The regional finals were a double-elimination bracket with all sets Best of 5. The winner of each regional finals qualified for the finale. Players had to be 18 years or older to participate in the online tournaments, and registration was region-locked to the players living within each tournament's region.

3. Expert Community Panel: A community panel for each game determined the final players that were invited before the Last Chance Qualifier, inviting 12 players for Melee and 2 players for Ultimate. The panels included trusted members of the community, many of whom helped to create the MPGR and PGRU. Each panelist created a list, and the lists will be combined and averaged to determine the invited players. Only placements, wins, and losses at Panda Cup events counted for the panel.

The panel judged players based on 4 criteria:
 * Placement at Panda Cup events
 * Win rate against players who were qualified or with a higher seed at Panda Cup events
 * Losses against qualified or higher seed players
 * Win/loss rate against other players who may have been chosen by the panel

4. Last Chance Qualifier: The was going to be an offline bracket held the day before the finale, with the top 4 players of each game qualifying.

In the, the 32 qualified players of each game would face off. All finalists would earn complimentary travel and housing.

Official Ruleset
Terms and Conditions

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Rulebook

Game settings

 * Stocks: 4
 * Timer: 8:00
 * Game Version: NTSC 1.02 and all characters/stages unlocked, using the TO’s choice of memory card data

Additional rules

 * Stage Clause: A player may not counterpick any stage they previously won on during the set, unless agreed upon by the opponent.
 * Wobbling is banned.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Rulebook

Game settings

 * Stocks: 3
 * Timer: 7:00
 * FS Meter: Off
 * Spirits: Off
 * Damage Handicap: Off
 * Stage Selection: Anyone
 * Items: Off and None
 * First to: 1 Win
 * Stage Morph: Off
 * Stage Hazards: Off
 * Team Attack: On
 * Launch Rate: x1.0
 * Underdog Boost: Off
 * Pausing: Off
 * Score Display: Off
 * Show Damage: Yes

Options

 * Custom Balance: Off
 * Echo Fighters: Separate
 * Radar: Big
 * Team Highlight: On
 * Mii Fighters: All moveset combinations are legal

Stages
Ultimate's stage list is subject to change. * The only acceptable alternative form of Final Destination (chosen through the Omega Form option on stage select) is Wuhu Island Omega.

Player qualification
Players could only qualify once. If a player was already qualified, the next highest placing non-qualified player received the spot. If a qualified player declined to participate, the qualifying spot would be transferred to the next highest ranked player in the event in which the declining player competed who is not otherwise qualified, following the tiebreaker rules listed below.

In the event qualifying spots required tiebreakers (for example, because one spot trickled down to 7th place, where there are two players), the following system would be in place:


 * If one spot had two claimants: both tied players would face-off in a best-of-five set. The winner of this set would claim the Panda Cup Finale spot.
 * If one spot had three or more claimants: a single-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets would be played out, seeded based on initial event seeding. The winner of this bracket would claim the Panda Cup Finale spot.
 * If two spots had three or more claimants: a double-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets would be set up. If the number of claimants was not a power of two (2, 4, 8, etc), the players with the lowest initial seedings would begin in losers (leaving a power-of-two number of players in Winners). The players who would make it to Grand Finals of this bracket would claim the Panda Cup Finale spots.
 * If three spots had four or more claimants: a double-elimination bracket of best-of-five sets would be set up. If the number of claimants was not a power of two (4, 8, etc), the players with the lowest initial seedings would begin in losers (leaving a power-of-two number of players in Winners). The two players who would make it to Winners Finals and the one player who would make it to Losers Finals of this bracket would claim the Panda Cup Finale spots.

Controversy
On November 29th, 2022, Smash World Tour released a document detailing actions behind-the-scene that eventually led to its cancellation. The document had a specific section dedicated to the actions of Panda, specifically Panda's CEO Alan Bunney.

During the first few months of the year, Smash World Tour found that many tournament organizers were unwilling to participate in the Smash World Tour due to the actions of Bunney, who told the organizers that the circuit would either not happen in 2022, or would be quickly shut down if announced. Bunney also pressured tournaments to either not join the SWT or, if they were already in the circuit, to drop out, stating that tournaments in the SWT would not be part of the Panda Cup and also implying that they would not be safe from Nintendo. Notably, Bunney learned that had the broadcasting rights to a few tournaments that Panda Cup wanted, so Bunney tried to force BTS to give up their streaming rights, threatening to get Nintendo involved if they didn't. The threat prove unsuccessful, and with many events declining the invitation, Panda eventually lifted their exclusivity rule. This led many tournaments that were in both the Panda Cup and the SWT to receive a license from Nintendo, surprising the SWT organizers, who were initially told by Nintendo that it was not possible.

The accusations in the document were supported by LD, the co-founder of BTS.

The document's release led to an outcry against Bunney and Panda, with many accusing them for causing the cancellation of the Smash World Tour 2022 and hurting the grassroots scene. Many prominent members of the community called for a boycott for the circuit and the Panda Cup Finale,  and within a few hours, many players who had qualified for the finale (such as  and ) or had planned to attend the Last Chance Qualifier (such as  and ) announced that they were dropping out. Some players were unable to drop out due to being contractually required to attend (such as Panda-sponsored player ), though this proved not to be an issue after the event itself was canceled.

Melee
The following players qualified through offline tournaments in the circuit for Melee:

The following players were invited by panelists for Melee:

Ultimate
The following players qualified through offline tournaments in the circuit for Ultimate:

The following players qualified through online finals in the circuit for Ultimate:
 * Heartland:
 * Mid-Atlantic USA:
 * Southeast USA:
 * South-Central USA:
 * Southwest USA:
 * Mexico:
 * Northeast NA:
 * Northwest NA:

The following players were invited by panelists for Ultimate:

Trivia

 * A Panda Cup trailer for and  featuring past tournament matches in both Melee and Ultimate was posted to the Nintendo Switch's Nintendo Switch Online app on September 19th, 2022.