User:SenorMexicano/2022 Smash World Tour-Panda Cup controversy

The 2022 Smash World Tour-Panda Cup controversy is an ongoing controversy that began with the cancelation of the on November 29th, 2022.

Smash World Tour's initial statement
On November 29th, 2022, Smash World Tour released a document detailing actions behind-the-scene that eventually led to its cancellation.

Prior to the, members of , the SWT organizers, were invited to a meeting with Nintendo and its legal team. During the meeting, Nintendo discussed how they had no plans on shutting down the championship, but were in fact open to the possibility of having the Smash World Tour licensed by them in the future, noting that their partnership with was not exclusive. Discussions continued throughout the first few months of 2022, however during this time SWT organizers learned that many other organizers were hesitant on joining the circuit due to statements from Panda's CEO Alan Bunney, who had told the organizers that SWT was not coming back. Despite Nintendo reassuring them otherwise, Bunney continued to sow doubt on the circuit's longevity and went against Nintendo's words by both preventing other organizers from joining the SWT and pressuring tournaments on the SWT to drop out of the circuit, stating that tournaments that do will not be allowed to join the and 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, the Panda Cup 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.

During this time, communications between Nintendo and SWT started to slow down. After SWT ran out of time to get an official license for the year's circuit, Nintendo recommended the group to apply for a license solely for the championship tournament at the end of the year, in hopes that it could lead to a full license for the 2023 iteration. However SWT saw little communication from Nintendo in the following months, which led SWT to push back the championship's announcement until August, after which Nintendo apologized to them for the slow communication. The following month, Nintendo told them that while nothing has been decided yet in regards to their license, Bunney's conduct and the behind-the-scenes drama with the Panda Cup were coming under evaluation. Despite SWT requesting for one, Nintendo declined to have its decision makers discuss the license with the SWT organizers.

SWT's last few discussions with Nintendo came in November, a month before the championship. Nintendo confirmed that they were still figuring out the license while noting that people they were discussing with have advocated for the SWT, community, and grassroots organizers; despite this, Nintendo still declined to have their decision makers discuss with the SWT organizers. The following and final conversation came with a verdict: Nintendo would not license both the championship and any tournament activity from the SWT in 2023, with Nintendo giving little reason as to why and refusing to allow SWT from running the circuit without a license, which came as a shock to the team and forced them to cancel the 2022 finale.

Reactions to the statement
The announcement led to an outcry from the community, particularly those who had qualified for the tournament. Many players once again accused Nintendo for hurting Smash's grassroots scene and criticized the company for continuing their out-of-touch behaviors with the community. Esports organizations such as and Paragon released statements urging Nintendo to reverse their decision.

The document's release led to an outcry against Bunney and Panda, with

Many others also criticized Panda, more specifically Bunney, for using the Panda Cup's partnership with Nintendo to undermine and shut down the Smash World Tour in order to promote the Panda Cup and intimidate other tournaments to exclusively join the Panda Cup. Many accused them for causing the cancellation of the Smash World Tour 2022 and hurting the grassroots scene, and many prominent members of the community called for a boycott for the circuit and the Panda Cup Finale. 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, although some players are unable to drop out due to being contractually required to attend (such as Panda-sponsored player ).

In response to the championship's cancellation, Beyond the Summit reopened registration for a day and gave free entry to SWT participants who had yet to register for Mainstage. All entry fees paid during this time were donated directly to SWT.

https://twitter.com/LudwigAhgren/status/1598467672744022017?cxt=HHwWgsDSraP48q4sAAAA

Nintendo's responses
A Nintendo spokesperson initially released a response to Kotaku a few hours later. In the response, they confirmed that they decided not to give a license to the Smash World Tour team but denied any influence from any outside sources. Nintendo also claimed that they were not responsible for the cancelation, as they did not block the organization from running the the finale due to the negative impact it would have on the participants. The Smash World Tour organizers challenged this statement in a follow-up, where they reiterated their previous stance and provided Nintendo's written statement to them.

A follow-up statement from Nintendo was then released to IGN on December 2nd which reaffirmed their previous claims, specifically how they told the Smash World Tour team that the finale could still be run, and that the cancelation was ultimately the Smash World Tour's choice. In addition, Nintendo defended Panda by stating how the team was an advocate for the community, and that Panda would continue to be a partner with Nintendo. The Smash World team responded by standing by their initial follow-up and stating how they and other tournament organizers were confused about what Nintendo's actual position is on unlicensed events. The team also noted their concern over Nintendo's defense of Panda despite Nintendo knowing Panda's behavior from behind-the-scenes.

Panda's responses

 * https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1598741395870605312
 * https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1599631343159480321

Alan Bunney's responses

 * Alan's first response and its reception: https://medium.com/@alan_43400/my-statement-3a66fd37978a
 * Alan's podcast and it's reception: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/107w08n/comment/j3ougv7/

Aftermath

 * Panda's dissolution and the criticisms of the community's handling of the controversy:
 * https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss7ks7 BobbyWasabi's comments on the situation
 * Alphicans criticizing the community for their treatment of Panda https://twitter.com/Alphicans/status/1612896753866670080
 * Response to the criticism, noting how many were pressured to leave the company https://twitter.com/KidLiquid/status/1613313070255984641
 * WaDi https://twitter.com/WaDiRob/status/1613366443965579266
 * TK https://twitter.com/TKbreezy/status/1613319628498915333