Published , by Josh Hawkins
Published , by Josh Hawkins
Smash Melee and Smash Ultimate fans were excited when The Big House announced that its annual Smash tournaments would return this year. With a bright spot to look forward to in all the chaos that 2020 has brought, those same fans will be disappointed to learn that The Big House has cancelled that upcoming event following a cease and desist order from Nintendo itself.
The news came via a tweet from The Big House today, which states,
Many community members took to Twitter to defend the tournament following the announcement, with the creator of Slippi posting the following message:
Other members, like Samuel "Dabuz" Buzby, a leading Smash Ultimate professional and Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, a leading Melee player spoke out against the move as well as the tournament’s organizer Robin Harn.
For its part, Nintendo also addressed the matter directly, though it added a little further context to the matter. Nintendo would confirm that the issue with The Big House was that Slippi was included, which Nintendo views as a "pirated version of its intellectual property". Nintendo claims it asked that Slippi not be incuded in Big House's events and the organizers refused, which prompted Nintendo's harsher Cease & Desist response.
It’s important to note that while the Melee competition would have used Slippi, the Ultimate tournament would not have, so it is interesting to see Nintendo pushing for both to be shut down. It’s sad to see the Smash community struggling even more, especially following all the scene-shaking sexual allegations that happened earlier in the year, even more so at the hands of the company whose games they all hold so dear. Hungrybox also did a detailed video on what this could mean for the future of Smash Melee, so check that out below.
We’ll continue to keep an eye on this story and report if anything changes. For now, it’s with a heavy heart that we have to see one of the few things the Smash community had to look forward to come crashing down on them.