The Nintendo/Panda/Smash World Tour Drama, Explained

If you follow esports at all, chances are you've heard whispers of a massive drama happening within the Super Smash Brothers competitive scene. The TL;DR for the current state of the Smash scene is: it's screwed.

The longer version is a massively tangled web of egos, he said/they said and legal red tape, the full context of which has taken some, like Cr1TiKaL, hours to cover. Here, we'll provide an explanation of the entire situation regarding the cancelation of the Smash World Tour, how esports organization Panda Global is involved, and the future of the Smash community.

What Happened to the Smash World Tour?

The Smash World Tour was an ambitious global initiative created in part by an independent esports organization called the "VGBC." It aimed to crown a yearly "champion" of Smash by having the results of several tournaments around the globe count towards their championship. Competitors in those events would accrue points in anticipation of their championship tournament in December.

What it didn't have was a license to operate from Nintendo. Nintendo has been infamously litigious when it comes to competitive Smash Brothers, but for about two years, the Smash World Tour operated without issue. This apparently changed the day before Thanksgiving, which was when Smash World Tour said in an announcement that Nintendo told them they could no longer operate, and that the 2022 championships, which would have taken place in mid-December, were canceled.

Nintendo said in a written statement that they expect any commercial activity with its IP to be granted a Nintendo license, that it did not think the Smash World Tour met its health and safety standards, and it would not grant a license for the 2022 Smash World Tour Championships or any 2023 SWT activity. This came as a shock to Smash World Tour organizers, who had a productive working relationship through 2022, but under the threat of a costly legal battle they could not afford, SWT canceled its finals.

The news was understandably devastating, but while Smash fans reignited their ire at Nintendo, much of the anger was directed at another esports organization, Panda Global.

Who Is Panda Global, And What Did They Do?

Panda Global is a familiar organization for Smash fans, as they have signed many notable Smash players such as Marss, Esam and WaDi. They also make Smash-related YouTube content that performs decently well on the site. Most importantly for this story, they have a partnership with Nintendo and are running their own Nintendo-licensed championship circuit called the Panda Cup.

In Smash World Tour's statement, they included hefty allegations against Panda Global's CEO, Dr. Alan Bunney, claiming he worked to sabotage the Smash World Tour by threatening events on their circuit. According to Smash World Tour, Dr. Alan said to tournament organizers that they should join Panda Cup and not Smash World Tour, insinuating Nintendo would soon be shutting down their events. Another independent organization, Beyond the Summit, received a significant brunt of these threats.

While Smash World Tour did not directly accuse Panda Global of using Nintendo to sabotage their event, that was the implication many took away from their statement. From their accusation, which was corroborated by those who had worked with Dr. Alan in the past, it appeared as though Dr. Alan wanted to monopolize all of the competitive Smash scene under the Panda umbrella and was willing to flex his influence with Nintendo to do so.

The Fallout

It took days for Nintendo and Panda to respond, but neither response was satisfactory for fans. Both claimed they had "no idea" why SWT canceled their 2022 championship, as Nintendo claimed it never ordered them to do so. They also used very PR-friendly language to say that Nintendo and Panda would continue working together as valued business partners.

At this point, Panda began hemorrhaging employees, as reportedly 80% of their staff and talent resigned. Days later, Panda released a second statement, announcing that Dr. Alan had been removed from his duties as CEO and that the Panda Cup had been postponed. Dr. Alan himself teased a statement that would accuse Smash World Tour was lying and would demonstrate how Beyond the Summit was jeopardizing all of Smash.

Dr. Alan's Statement

Late Tuesday night, Dr. Alan released his statement. It's a massive 31 pages in length and included hefty accusations, chief among them being that the Smash World Tour never intended to hold their 2022 Championships, sabotaging themselves to take Panda down and make themselves the heroes of the Smash community.

Dr. Alan went so far as to imply the venue that would host the championship tournament was never booked. This was disputed and easily disproven afterward in Smash World Tour's response.

Of note, this statement also included a screenshot of the email Nintendo sent to SWT in which they said they would not grant Smash World Tour a license for the 2022 championships.

As for accusations of Dr. Alan "strong-arming" tournament organizers into joining Panda Cup, he firmly denied the allegations. He then went on a lengthy diatribe against Beyond the Summit and one of its execs, Ken Chen, accusing Chen of stonewalling him in his every attempt to work with the two organizations.

In response, Chen released statements that he interpreted as threats Alan made in which Alan brought up discussing broadcast rights for events with Nintendo. This was interpreted by Chen as Alan saying that unless Beyond the Summit got on board with Panda, Nintendo could get involved and shut them down.

Where Things Stand Now

Currently, many people are backing the words of Beyond the Summit and Smash World Tour, as they've been corroborated by multiple sources, while Dr. Alan has little support. In the most charitable view, there was a grave miscommunication between Dr. Alan and the other two parties that soured any potential partnerships they might have had.

This doesn't answer why Nintendo chose now of all times to flex its muscle on the Smash World Tour. It further remains unclear what role Panda played in that decision. It's Dr. Alan's belief that Smash World Tour sabotaged themselves, which they firmly deny, citing the hundreds of thousands of dollars they lost investing in the Smash World Tour championship.

As it stands now, the Smash World Tour is toast until at least 2024. Panda postponed their championships due to safety reasons and anticipations of boycotts for the event. There are no major tournaments scheduled for the rest of 2022 and many major tournament organizers in 2023 are unsure of where they stand. It's a dark time for players of Smash Bros, a group whose biggest headache was, until two weeks ago, Minecraft Steve.

For more information about the cancelation of the Smash World Tour, check out our coverage here and here.