Panda's Dr. Alan Drops 31-Page Statement On Smash World Tour Drama, Leaving Community Uncertain Of Its Future

After a week of controversy regarding the cancelation of the Smash World Tour, the key figure at the center of the drama, former Panda Global CEO Dr. Alan Bunney, has released an extensive, 31-page statement discussing the allegations levied against him by members of independent Smash organizations VGBC and Beyond the Summit, explaining his view of the events that led to the devastating and chaotic week in Smash history.

Dr. Alan is accused of using Panda's licensed partnership with Nintendo as a threat to other independently run Smash circuits, implying in conversations with VGBC (the organizers of the Smash World Tour) and Beyond the Summit that unless they joined the Panda Cup, Nintendo would step in to shut their events down.

Though the first Smash World Tour statement did not directly accuse Dr. Alan of getting the tour shut down, their statement did levy those allegations, leading many to believe he was in some way responsible for Nintendo giving SWT a cease and desist.

His statement is difficult to summarize briefly, but some sections have become the focus of discussion on social media over the past few hours.

One of the key points of debate over the past few days is the Smash World Tour's assertion that Nintendo forced the circuit to cancel their 2022 championships just weeks before they were to take place in mid-December under threat of legal action.

In separate but similar statements released days later, both Nintendo and Panda said this was not the case, and that Smash World Tour was told they can hold their 2022 championships but could not operate in 2023. Both statements implied the Smash World Tour canceled the 2022 championships of their own volition.

Dr. Alan's statement implies that the Smash World Tour organizers intentionally sabotaged their own event to take down Panda. In what he called the "SWT Gambit," Dr. Alan wrote:

The SWT was the perfect gambit for VGBC. Information came to us from an anonymous source all the way back in 2020. VGBC was feeling pushed out of the community from losing so much ground to BTS. They wanted something of their own. And so they came up with the SWT gambit:
# 1. SWT doesn’t get shut down, VGBC gets their own circuit without the years of negotiation with Nintendo
# 2. SWT uses the threat of social media backlash against Nintendo to pressure Nintendo into giving them a license
# 3. SWT gets shut down by Nintendo, and now VGBC is the martyr of the community due to Nintendo. Then the community will rally behind their other events to support them.

It’s pretty straightforward logic. VGBC wins no matter what.

He also says he's been informed that VGBC did not actually book the San Antonio hotel where the championships were to take place, writing:

I’ve been recently informed that the main hotel in San Antonio listed in the SWT discord did not have any pre-existing block or any expectation of large groups this weekend. There was no block canceled, it simply never existed.

"Both Panda and I as the former CEO have done absolutely nothing to harm SWT in any way, nor sabotage any SWT business efforts, license efforts, or otherwise. Period," he wrote.

The implication here is that the Smash World Tour never intended for the 2022 finals to take place and instead engaged in a mutual destruction tactic in order to bring Panda Global down and get the community to rally behind VGBC.

At this point, it's worth noting that after Dr. Alan released his statement, the Smash World Tour followed up with a rebuttal.

Their statement expressed shock that Dr. Alan accused them of intentionally sinking years of work and tens of thousands of dollars into a plan to take down Panda at their own expense. They wrote:

We have put almost three years into the Smash World Tour, and were very proud of what we were building. It is devastating to see even more damage done to the Smash community right before our eyes with a “parting shot” like this… There are so many resources that have been irreversibly destroyed, and so many who have been permanently hurt. It is incredibly frustrating that he would claim that all of that was one giant “coordinated lie.” We are struggling to even see the gain or “win” he repeatedly mentions – this has been awful for us, as well as the entire Smash community, which is why we have been continually urging change.

The statement provided a receipt showing they had indeed booked the San Antonio hotel where the championships would take place. They also showed the email they received from Nintendo that stated, "Nintendo will not be able to grant a license for the Smash World Tour Championship in 2022 or any Smash World Tour activity in 2023."

Elsewhere in Dr. Alan's statement, he discusses the allegations of him "strong-arming" Beyond the Summit and other tournament organizers into a deal with Panda. He claims BTS leader Ken "HotBid" Chen stonewalled him despite his multiple attempts to build a working relationship between the two organizations.

He also implies there is a bubbling legal issue that could be devastating for the Smash community that BTS is aware of, but he did not elaborate on what it is (many think it has to do with broadcasting rights for Smash tournaments). He claims Chen was one of the most unsavory individuals he'd ever worked with.

Chen pushed back on these claims in a Twitter thread, saying Alan made threats regarding the "legal issue" and openly talked about the Smash World Tour getting shut down in 2021, which VGBC says turned potential sponsors away. Others who have worked with Chen and BTS have corroborated his side of events and the organization's impression of Dr. Alan.

Alan further claims he did not strong-arm other TOs and showed several positive conversations he'd had with tournament organizers about working with Panda. He admits he may have been overzealous in his approach, but insists his intentions were good and he did not want "The whole pie" of Smash.

On Twitter, tournament organizers who worked with Dr. Alan agreed that the impression they got was that Dr. Alan wanted "the keys" to competitive Smash and that many were turned off from working with him because of his attitude.

Unfortunately, the debacle leaves Smash players with a "he said/they said" situation to sort out while dealing with a massive setback in the community's efforts to gain tangible support from Nintendo, something many hope would legitimize Smash as an esport and allow players to earn a living from the game.

For its part, Nintendo has been silent since its initial statement defending Panda, but many fear the situation could cause them to back off from helping the Super Smash Brothers community forever.