Revision as of 07:50, 6 December 2022 editHyliad (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, IP block exemptions21,812 edits The Cancellation partof the article is based on the same section of the 2022 World Tour article on Liquipedia, which I had mostly wrote myself.Tag: Disambiguation links added | Latest revision as of 00:26, 30 October 2024 edit undoQuantumFoam66 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users7,916 edits Reverted 1 edit by Pinkgamergirl (talk)Tags: Twinkle Undo | ||
(46 intermediate revisions by 20 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|Annual Super Smash Bros. tournament circuit}} | |||
{{Infobox sports league | |||
{{Multiple issues|{{POV|date=December 2022}} | |||
{{Excessive detail|date=December 2022}} | |||
{{Original research|date=December 2022}}}}{{Infobox sports league | |||
|title=Smash World Tour | |title=Smash World Tour | ||
|logo= | |logo=File:SWT 2022.png | ||
|caption=Official logo of the 2022 Smash World Tour | |||
|formerly= | |formerly= | ||
|game='']''<br />'']'' | |game='']''<br />'']'' | ||
Line 8: | Line 12: | ||
|inaugural=2020 | |inaugural=2020 | ||
|folded=November 29, 2022 | |folded=November 29, 2022 | ||
|current_season = |
|current_season = | ||
|commissioner= Calvin "GimR" Lofton<br />Matthew |
|commissioner= Calvin "GimR" Lofton<br />Matthew "Aposl" Lofton<br />Justin Wykowski | ||
|motto= | |motto= | ||
|champion = ] (''Melee'')<br />] (''Ultimate'') | |champion = ] (''Melee'')<br />] (''Ultimate'') | ||
|most_champs |
|most_champs = | ||
|owner=Smash World Tour | |owner=Smash World Tour | ||
|countries= | |countries= | ||
|teams= | |teams= | ||
|related_comps= |
|related_comps= | ||
|website={{url|https://smashworldtour.com/}} | |website={{url|https://smashworldtour.com/}} | ||
|footnotes= | |footnotes= | ||
}} | }} | ||
The '''Smash World Tour''' ('''SWT''') was an annual '']'' ] operating all around the world, but based in the United States. It took place three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, although only the 2021 edition was completed fully, mostly |
The '''Smash World Tour''' ('''SWT''') was an annual '']'' ] operating all around the world, but based in the United States. It took place three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, although only the 2021 edition was completed fully, and mostly consisted of a series of tournaments aiming to determine a number of players qualifying for the '''Smash World Championships''', ] singles tournaments for both '']'' and '']''; the Championships themselves acted as the culmination of the tour, with the crowning of world champions for both games. | ||
The inaugural 2020 edition of the tournament was announced on March 1, 2020; however the ] forced the cancellation of all offline ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournaments, and therefore the premature end of the tournament mid-March. It returned the following year, |
The inaugural 2020 edition of the tournament was announced on March 1, 2020; however the ] forced the cancellation of all offline ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournaments, and therefore the premature end of the tournament mid-March. It returned the following year, successfully completing, and returned once again in 2022. The 2021 Championship's prize pool of a combined $150,000 remains one of the highest prize pools for any event in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history, and the 2022 Championship's prize pool of $250,000 was set to be the highest in history. In total, the 2022 Smash World Tour included over 6,400 offline tournaments and featured over 325,000 players, making it the largest tour in the history of ]. | ||
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the 2022 Smash World Championships, SWT organizers announced the abrupt cancellation of both the 2022 Championships and the 2023 Smash World Tour, claiming to have been forced to shut down both by ''Super Smash Bros.'' publisher ] |
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the 2022 Smash World Championships, SWT organizers announced the abrupt cancellation of both the 2022 Championships and the 2023 Smash World Tour, claiming to have been forced to shut down both by ''Super Smash Bros.'' publisher ]. As part of their statement, they also accused Alan Bunney, the CEO and owner of Panda, another esports organization, of severe misconduct against the community, including efforts to sabotage the Smash World Tour in favor of the Panda Cup, a competing circuit organized by Panda which, unlike the SWT, was officially licensed by Nintendo. The announcement caused a major controversy in the competitive ''Super Smash Bros.'' community, and resulted in near-universal condemnation against both Nintendo, which denied some of the accusations and did not address the others, and Panda, which denied all accusations safe from one occurrence of misconduct from Bunney. Following further backslash, which saw a wave of resignations from Panda employees and many top players deciding to boycott the upcoming Panda Cup Finale, Panda announced the resignation of Bunney as CEO (but not owner) and the postponement of the Panda Cup Finale. | ||
== History == | == History == | ||
=== 2020 === | === 2020 === | ||
The Smash World Tour was created by siblings Calvin "GimR" Lofton and Matthew |
The Smash World Tour was created by siblings Calvin "GimR" Lofton and Matthew "Aposl" Lofton, founders of the longstanding ''Super Smash Bros.'' tournament organization VGBootCamp, and Justin Wykowski, a producer for ]. After announcement, Calvin said that the Smash World Tour was "the next step to push ''Smash'' toward a tier one esport", and making the game more profitable for tournament organizers (TOs) and competitors. While the tour was partnered with ] and the ] website ''start.gg'', it had not waited to partner with ], which '']'' deemed to have "mired past attempts" at creating prominent '']'' circuits; however, the organizers were having active discussions with Nintendo—Wykowski said that the team's "goal was to go ahead and create something that then to Nintendo as an opportunity to be able to work with the ''Smash'' community directly".<ref name="Washington2020">{{cite news |last=Bhansali |first=Zane |date=March 12, 2020 |title=The Smash World Tour, boasting a $250,000 prize pool, wants to make Smash a tier one esport |newspaper=] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2020/03/12/smash-world-tour/ |access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
However, the spread of the ] led the Smash World Tour to cancel all of its major events for March and April 2020 mid-March, and eventually all events for the rest of the year; only two relatively small tournaments took place before the cancellation, the 86-entrants Don't Stomp On Me and the 39-entrants SoCal The Hype, both on March 14, 2020.<ref name="PoundCancelled">{{cite web |url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/116888/smash-world-tour-cancels-pound-2020-events-suspended-through-april|title=Smash World Tour cancels Pound 2020, events suspended through April|first=Chris|last=Jarrard|website=Shack News|date=March 12, 2020|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="InvenBack">{{cite web |url=https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/13351/the-smash-world-tour-is-back-for-2021-with-a-big-prize-pool-and-hybrid-tourney-style |title=The Smash World Tour is back for 2021 with a big prize pool and hybrid tourney style |first=Olivia|last=Richman|website=Iven Global|date=February 21, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name=" |
However, the spread of the ] led the Smash World Tour to cancel all of its major events for March and April 2020 mid-March, and eventually all events for the rest of the year; only two relatively small tournaments took place before the cancellation, the 86-entrants Don't Stomp On Me and the 39-entrants SoCal The Hype, both on March 14, 2020.<ref name="PoundCancelled">{{cite web |url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/116888/smash-world-tour-cancels-pound-2020-events-suspended-through-april|title=Smash World Tour cancels Pound 2020, events suspended through April|first=Chris|last=Jarrard|website=Shack News|date=March 12, 2020|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="InvenBack">{{cite web |url=https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/13351/the-smash-world-tour-is-back-for-2021-with-a-big-prize-pool-and-hybrid-tourney-style |title=The Smash World Tour is back for 2021 with a big prize pool and hybrid tourney style |first=Olivia|last=Richman|website=Iven Global|date=February 21, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="21Schedule">{{cite web|url=https://smashworldtour.com/schedule-of-events/|title=Official 2021 Smash World Tour schedule}}</ref><ref name="DSOM">{{cite web |url=https://www.start.gg/tournament/don-t-stomp-on-me/details|title=Don't Stomp On Me|website=start.gg|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="STH">{{cite web |url=https://www.start.gg/tournament/socal-the-hype/details |title=SoCal The Hype |website=SoCal The Hype |access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
=== 2021 === | === 2021 === | ||
The 2021 edition of the tour was announced on February 20, 2021. Once again, the circuit partnered with Twitch, but not with Nintendo.<ref name="21FautSavoir">{{cite web |url=https://smash-notes.fr/le-smash-world-tour-tout-ce-quil-faut-savoir/ |title=Le Smash World Tour 2021 : Tout ce |
The 2021 edition of the tour was announced on February 20, 2021. Once again, the circuit partnered with Twitch, but not with Nintendo.<ref name="21FautSavoir">{{cite web |url=https://smash-notes.fr/le-smash-world-tour-tout-ce-quil-faut-savoir/ |title=Le Smash World Tour 2021 : Tout ce qu'il faut savoir |language=French |website=Smash Notes |date=22 February 2021 |access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> The originally planned prize pool for both games combined was $210,000 (including the money prizes for qualification tournaments prior to the Championship), the highest prize pool in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history; the prize pool for the Championships alone was $150,000, making it the largest prize pool for a single event in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history: the prize pool was $75,000 for each game.<ref name="InvenBack"/><ref name="21Schedule"/><ref name="Ginx21">{{cite web |url=https://www.ginx.tv/en/smash-ultimate/smash-world-tour-2021-schedule-format-prize-pool-and-more|title=Smash World Tour 2021: Schedule, format, prize pool, and more |first=Andrés|last=Aquino|website=]|date=February 21, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
As part of the 2021 tour, 19 events specifically created for the tour took place, including 11 "Qualifiers", ''Ultimate''-exclusive online open tournaments, six "Regional Finals", 16-players invitational featuring selected players for ''Melee'', and players who qualified via the Qualifier tournaments for ''Ultimate''. The final two events were the Last Chance Qualifier event to determine the final entrants of the Smash World Championship, the circuit's final event.<ref name="21Schedule"/> The switch from the original system making independent tournaments part of the tour via a point system to a series of events dedicated solely to the circuit where offline tournaments would have a limited number of players, took place in order to make the event possible in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the organizers hoped to resume using the 2020 format the following year.<ref name="InvenBack"/> | As part of the 2021 tour, 19 events specifically created for the tour took place, including 11 "Qualifiers", ''Ultimate''-exclusive online open tournaments, six "Regional Finals", 16-players invitational featuring selected players for ''Melee'', and players who qualified via the Qualifier tournaments for ''Ultimate''. The final two events were the Last Chance Qualifier event to determine the final entrants of the Smash World Championship, the circuit's final event.<ref name="21Schedule"/> The switch from the original system making independent tournaments part of the tour via a point system to a series of events dedicated solely to the circuit where offline tournaments would have a limited number of players, took place in order to make the event possible in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the organizers hoped to resume using the 2020 format the following year.<ref name="InvenBack"/> | ||
The pandemic still caused a number of issues: both Oceania Regional Finals were cancelled, with Australian players Sora and Jdizzle selected as Oceania representatives for ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' respectively due to being ranked #1 in Australia for their respective games.<ref name="OceaniaCancelled"> |
The pandemic still caused a number of issues: both Oceania Regional Finals were cancelled, with Australian players Sora and Jdizzle selected as Oceania representatives for ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' respectively due to being ranked #1 in Australia for their respective games.<ref name="OceaniaCancelled">{{cite tweet |author=Smash World Tour 2022 |user=SmashWorldTour |number=1458615273876082691 |date=November 11, 2021 |title=A COVID-19 Update https://t.co/IbdkMjdC0O |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105053615/https://twitter.com/SmashWorldTour/status/1458615273876082691 |archive-date=January 5, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Due to the state of the pandemic in South America, the ''Ultimate'' Regional Finals in the region where held online, while ''Melee''{{'}}s were cancelled entirely, with a panel directly selecting Chilean players Chape and HP to represent the region at the Championship.<ref name="SouthAmericaCancelled">{{cite tweet |author=Smash World Tour 2022 |user=SmashWorldTour |number=1407055454954524676 |date=June 21, 2021 |title=Due to COVID-19, we have a few updates for the Smash World Tour's in-person Regional Finals schedule - full announcement below. Updated Schedule: https://t.co/3MDlur27KO https://t.co/TYYfqNl4EI |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062931/https://twitter.com/SmashWorldTour/status/1407055454954524676 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The East Asia Regional Finals, which took place in Japan and were meant to feature players who had qualified via either the Japan Qualifier and East Asia South Qualifier, encountered significant issues as none of the qualified East Asia South players (all from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, or South Korea) were able to travel to Japan for it. As such, Hong Kong player XIFL, who had taken first place in the East Asia South Qualifiers, directly qualified for the Championship, and the number of qualifying Championship spots for the now all-Japanese East Asia Regional Finals was reduced from 6 to 5.<ref>{{cite tweet |author=Smash World Tour 2022 |user=SmashWorldTour |number=1463684319789080579 |date=November 25, 2021 |title=A COVID-19 update regarding the East Asia Ultimate Regional Finals this weekend. https://t.co/lgcGJmOmdN |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062857/https://twitter.com/smashworldtour/status/1463684319789080579 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
The 2021 Smash World Tour culminated |
The 2021 Smash World Tour culminated with the Smash World Championships on December 17–19, 2021, featuring 40 players in both the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' tournaments. American player ] became the inaugural ''Melee'' world champion, and Mexican player ] becoming the inaugural ''Ultimate'' world champion.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Smash World Tour Championships|url=https://smash.gg/tournament/the-smash-world-tour-championships/event|access-date=2021-12-20|website=smash.gg}}</ref><ref name="HausChampionship21">{{cite web |url=https://thegamehaus.com/super-smash-brothers/mkleo-takes-the-first-super-smash-bros-ultimate-world-tour/2021/12/20/ |title= MkLeo Takes the First Super Smash Bros. Ultimate World Tour |first=Jeffery |last=Clippinger |website=The Game Haus |date=December 20, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="HubsChampionship">{{cite web |url=https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2021/dec/17/smash-world-tour-championships-results/ |title=Smash World Tour 2021 Championships results |first=Nicholas |last=Taylor |website=Event Hubs|date=December 19, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="BayrouTour">{{cite web |url=https://jeu-bayrou.com/2021/12/22/mkleo-termine-une-annee-2021-impressionnante-et-remporte-le-smash-world-tour/ |title=MkLeo termine une année 2021 impressionnante et remporte le Smash World Tour |first=Mert |last=Bayrou|language=French|website=Le Bayrou|date=December 22, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
Smash World Tour 2021 Championships results |first=Nicholas |last=Taylor |website=Event Hubs|date=December 19, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="BayrouTour">{{cite web |url=https://jeu-bayrou.com/2021/12/22/mkleo-termine-une-annee-2021-impressionnante-et-remporte-le-smash-world-tour/ |title=MkLeo termine une année 2021 impressionnante et remporte le Smash World Tour |first=Mert |last=Bayrou|language=French|website=Le Bayrou|date=December 22, 2021|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | |||
=== 2022 === | === 2022 === | ||
The 2022 edition of the Smash World Tour was announced on March 9, 2022. It marked the return of the original planned 2022 format, using a point system applicable to many tournaments part of the tour and working with the Smash World Tour, but unlike tournaments part of the 2021 tour, not organized directly by them. The organizers once again partnered with Twitch, with new partner online coaching platform Metafy.<ref name="Dot22Announced"/> The prize pool for the Smash World Championship at the end of the tour was $250,000, beating the previous year's $150,000 record for biggest event prize pool in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history. |
The 2022 edition of the Smash World Tour was announced on March 9, 2022. It marked the return of the original planned 2022 format, using a point system applicable to many tournaments part of the tour and working with the Smash World Tour, but unlike tournaments part of the 2021 tour, not organized directly by them. The organizers once again partnered with Twitch, with new partner online coaching platform Metafy.<ref name="Dot22Announced"/> The prize pool for the Smash World Championship at the end of the tour was $250,000, beating the previous year's $150,000 record for biggest event prize pool in ''Super Smash Bros.'' history.<ref name="Sheck22Pool">{{cite web |url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/129242/smash-world-tour-2022-features-250000-prize-pool-global-standings |title=Smash World Tour 2022 features $250,000 prize pool, global standings |first=Ozzie |last=Mejia |website=Shack News|date=March 9, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> Platinum and Gold events, the highest tier ratings for the tour, took place in countries whose ''Super Smash Bros.'' scenes usually receive little attention internationally, such as Brazil, Cuba, Qatar, and South Korea.<ref name="Sheck22Pool"/><ref name="Upcomer2022Tour">{{cite web |url=https://upcomer.com/every-platinum-and-gold-event-in-the-2022-smash-world-tour |title=Every platinum and gold event in the 2022 Smash World Tour |first=Dylan |last=Tate |website=]|date=March 9, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Sports22Announced">{{cite web |url=https://esports.gg/news/fgc/smash-world-tour-announced-for-2022/ |title=Smash World Tour Announced for 2022 with offline events across the world |first=Zach |last=Snoody |website=esports.gg|date=March 10, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Dot22Announced">{{cite web |url=https://dotesports.com/fgc/news/smash-world-tour-2022-returns-to-offline-format-with-250000-for-super-smash-bros-melee-ultimate |title=Smash World Tour 2022 returns to offline format with $250,000 for Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ultimate |first=Cale |last=Michael |website=]|date=March 9, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
The tour officially started with Virtuocity Smash Open 2022, a Gold-tier tournament taking place on March |
The tour officially started with Virtuocity Smash Open 2022, a Gold-tier tournament taking place on March 17–19, 2022 in ], ], although several tournaments dating as early as March 12 were retroactively recognized as Silver-tier events.<ref name="Virtuocity2022">{{cite web |url=https://www.start.gg/tournament/virtuocity-smash-open-2022/details |title=Virtuocity Smash Open 2022 |website=start.gg|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> In total, the 2022 Smash World Tour included over 6,400 offline tournaments, and featured over 325,000 players.<ref name="EuroNintendoResponse">{{cite web |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-addresses-controversial-smash-world-tour-fan-competition-closure-in-lengthy-statement |title=Nintendo addresses controversial Smash World Tour fan competition closure in lengthy statement |first=Matt |last=Wales |website=]|date=December 2, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref><ref name="IGNNintendoStatement">{{cite web|url= https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-issues-full-statement-over-smash-world-tour-cancellation |title= Nintendo Issues Full Statement Over Smash World Tour Cancellation |author= Matt T.M. Kim |date= December 2, 2022 |publisher= IGN |accessdate= December 6, 2022}}</ref> The completion of the gold-tier tournament ] on November 20, 2022, the final event of the tour before the Last Chance Qualifiers and Championships, marked the end of the points ranking competition, and the confirmation of the 30 qualified players for each game (not counting two future final two Last Chance Qualifier qualified players); American player ] topped the ranks for ''Melee'', while MkLeo topped the ranks for ''Ultimate''.<ref name="Upcomer22Qualified">{{cite web |url=https://upcomer.com/all-2022-smash-world-tour-championships-qualified-players |title=All 2022 Smash World Tour Championships qualified players |first=Dylan |last=Tate |website=]|date=November 28, 2022|access-date=December 6, 2022}}</ref> | ||
=== Cancellation |
=== Cancellation === | ||
{{Expand section|The second, full statement from Alan Bunney|date=December 2022|small=no}} | |||
====Announcement==== | |||
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the Championships were scheduled to begin, the organizers of the Smash World Tour announced that both the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' Championships had been cancelled, prematurely ending the Smash World Tour 2022, as well as announcing that the circuit would not return in 2023.<ref name="Verge Cancellation">{{Cite web |last=Weatherbed |first=Jess |date=November 30, 2022 |title=Nintendo has shut down the Smash World Tour |url=https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/30/23485811/nintendo-smash-world-tour-shut-down-event-tournament |website=The Verge}}</ref><ref name="Insider Cancellation">{{Cite news |last=Šimić |first=Ivan |date=November 30, 2022 |title=Smash World Tour in jeopardy following cancellation |newspaper=Esportsinsider |url=https://esportsinsider.com/2022/11/smash-world-tour-2023-cancelled-nintendo}}</ref> In their statement, they claimed to have had multiple conversations with Nintendo regarding an official license for the Smash World Tour, and that Nintendo appeared supportive, though a license had not been granted before the 2022 circuit had begun. They claimed that on November 23, Nintendo had informed them that a license would not be granted for either the 2022 Championships or the 2023 circuit, and that Nintendo had told them that the lack of a license meant the events were not allowed to operate. Smash World Tour accused Alan Bunney, then-] of the esports organization ], of encouraging tournament organizers to join the Panda Cup—an officially licensed circuit run by Panda—rather than the Smash World Tour, and using his partnership with Nintendo to threaten others with a ] order should they not comply. Smash World Tour further stated that Bunney attempted to seize broadcasting rights from the organization Beyond the Summit,<ref name="SWT Statement">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Smash World Tour Official Statement |url=https://medium.com/@smashworldtour/smash-world-tour-official-statement-f568a3d135c8}}</ref> which was corroborated by David "LD" Gorman, the organization's co-founder.<ref>{{cite tweet |author=LD |user=LDeeep |number=1597728742343778304 |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Alan spent several months basically running a protection racket telling TOs including BTS "it'd be a shame if your event got shutdown for being unlicensed" in an effort to scare them into signing onto the Cup. BTS will absolutely never participate in a circuit led by Alan. https://t.co/8NyqobpHkT |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062917/https://twitter.com/LDeeep/status/1597728742343778304 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the Smash World Championships on December 9-11 and with all 60 qualified players having already been confirmed (30 for each game), the organizers of the Smash World Tour announced the abrupt cancellation of both the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' events (as well as the Last Chance Qualifiers), and therefore the immediate and premature end of the Smash World Tour. They also announced the cancellation of the planned Smash World Tour 2023.<ref name="SWT Statement"></ref><ref name="Verge Cancellation"></ref><ref name="Insider Cancellation"></ref> | |||
After a request for comment from '']'', Nintendo responded, saying they "were unable to come to an agreement" with the Smash World Tour for a license in 2023, though Nintendo "did not request any changes to or cancellation of remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championships event, considering the negative impact on the players who were already planning to participate".<ref name="Kotaku Cancellation">{{Cite web |date=November 30, 2022 |title=Nintendo Shuts Down Smash World Tour, Organizers 'Losing Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars' |url=https://kotaku.com/nintendo-smash-world-tour-fgc-shut-down-panda-esports-1849833867 |website=Kotaku}}</ref> Smash World Tour disputed this, saying that Nintendo had confirmed that the 2022 Championships and 2023 circuit were not to proceed,<ref name="SWT followup 1">{{cite web |author=Smash World Tour |date=November 30, 2022 |title=OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 11/29/2022 (10:40 PM PT) |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8Km4iIZ-i5nadyjNWexfsfz1LeFjljV7UkGdz8_Cwc/edit |accessdate=December 6, 2022 |publisher=}}</ref> and that Nintendo acknowledged all potential impacts of the cancellation, including "some positive, some negative, and some really negative".<ref name=":0">{{cite web |author=Smash World Tour |date=December 2, 2022 |title=OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 12/02/2022 (5:35 AM PT) |url=https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1lWrVKGYaAs0Cr12jfJ890yUdHdARkJKvIBr6i0SsQ1k/mobilebasic |accessdate=December 6, 2022 |publisher=Smash World Tour}}</ref> According to Smash World Tour, Nintendo claimed that a license be granted "well in advance" of a public announcement in order for commercial events to be operated featuring Nintendo's ], and that the Smash World Tour had failed both health and safety guidelines and "internal partner guidelines", meaning Nintendo would be unable to grant a license for any upcoming Smash World Tour activity.<ref name="SWT followup 1" /> In a second statement to '']'' on December 2, Nintendo said that they "let know verbally that not requiring they cancel the 2022 finals event", as well as reaffirming their commitment to Panda as a partner.<ref>{{cite web |author=Matt T.M. Kim |date=December 2, 2012 |title=Nintendo Issues Full Statement Over Smash World Tour Cancellation |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-issues-full-statement-over-smash-world-tour-cancellation |accessdate=December 6, 2012 |publisher=IGN}}</ref> Smash World Tour stated that the timeline of Nintendo's actions were illogical if they intended to allow the Championships proceed.<ref name=":0" /> | |||
In their official statement, SWT claimed that numerous talks were held with Nintendo throughout 2021 and 2022 in hopes of getting an official license for the 2022 circuit. Nintendo appeared supportive of these efforts, but formal approval had not been achieved by the time the circuit was launched in March. In further discussions, Nintendo suggested that a single event license for the Smash World Championships being held in December would suffice, but kept on not giving SWT a definitive answer until November 23, when Nintendo officially denied their application to license the 2022 Championships and additionally denied them a license for a 2023 tour, despite SWT not having requested a license for the later. According to SWT, "Nintendo expects us to only operate with a commercial license, and that we would not be granted one for the upcoming Championships, or any activity in 2023". Due to existing contracts and obligations, SWT estimated the cost of this cancellation to be "hundreds of thousands of dollars".<ref name="SWT Statement"/> | |||
The same day, Panda published a statement denying their involvement in the cancellation of the Championships. They also denyed most of the accusations against Bunney, though they acknowledged that the dispute between him and Beyond the Summit did occur, and that he "spoke in a manner that did not reflect either guidance from Nintendo or our own standards".<ref name="Panda Response 1">{{cite tweet |author=Panda |user=PandaGlobal |number=1598741395870605312 |date=December 2, 2022 |title=https://t.co/KmCiKddaqh |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221221091636/https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1598741395870605312 |archive-date=December 21, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> After a wave of internal resignations and a growing number of players ]ing the Panda Cup Finale, Panda announced on December 5 that Bunney was no longer CEO, and that the Finale had been postponed "due to security concerns".<ref>{{cite tweet |author=Panda |user=PandaGlobal |number=1599631343159480321 |date=December 5, 2022 |title=https://t.co/Y7xbon04YN |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107153557/https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1599631343159480321 |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Bunney claimed on the next day that he had resigned "to protect the safety and wellbeing of the team", and that he would release a statement in the future with evidence that Smash World Tour's statement was untruthful and Beyond the Summit's leadership "put the community in jeopardy".<ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2">{{cite web |last=Denzer |first=TJ |date=December 5, 2022 |title=Panda Cup 2022 Finale postponed, esports org's CEO steps down |url=https://upcomer.com/panda-cup-finale-postponed-as-panda-ceo-resigns |accessdate=December 6, 2022 |publisher=]}}</ref><ref name="ShackPanda Response 2">{{cite web |last=Tate |first=Dylan |date=December 5, 2022 |title=Panda Cup Finale postponed as Panda CEO resigns |url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/133347/panda-global-cup-postponed-ceo-resigns |accessdate=December 6, 2022 |publisher=Shack News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Alan |date=2022-12-07 |title=My Statement. |url=https://medium.com/@alan_43400/my-statement-3a66fd37978a |access-date=2023-02-07 |website=Medium |language=en}}</ref> | |||
====Panda allegations==== | |||
In their cancellation announcement, SWT accused Alan Bunney, CEO, owner and co-founder of the esports organization Panda, of attempting to sabotage the Smash World Tour. According to SWT, Bunney tried to discourage major tournament organizers from joining the Smash World Tour, claiming that the circuit would be shut down. This was allegedly done to secure exclusivity for the Panda Cup, a competing new circuit hosted by Panda and officially licensed by Nintendo.<ref name="SWT Statement"/> | |||
The Panda Cup's official status was also allegedly used in an attempt to seize broadcasting rights from fellow esports organization Beyond The Summit for several tournaments partnered organized by BTS but part of the Panda Cup. SWT claimed that Bunney threatened BTS' ability to operate in Smash, citing taht he could use his connections to Nintendo to shut their events down.<ref name="SWT Statement"/> BTS co-founder David "LD" Gorman corroborated this claim, publicly stating that Alan had been "basically running a protection racket" and that "BTS will absolutely never participate in a circuit led by Alan".<ref></ref> Tracy "nazhjin" Parkes, Director of Partnerships for ], further confirmed the claims of misconduct.<ref></ref> | |||
====Response from Nintendo and Panda==== | |||
Nintendo responded to SWT's claims via '']'', stating: "Unfortunately after continuous conversations with Smash World Tour, and after giving the same deep consideration we apply to any potential partner, we were unable to come to an agreement with SWT for a full circuit in 2023. Nintendo did not request any changes to or cancellation of remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championship event, considering the negative impact on the players who were already planning to participate."<ref name="Kotaku Cancellation"></ref> SWT disputed this, stating that Nintendo had confirmed both verbally and in writing that the 2022 Championships and any 2023 circuit were not to proceed.<ref name="SWT followup 1">{{cite web | url = https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8Km4iIZ-i5nadyjNWexfsfz1LeFjljV7UkGdz8_Cwc/edit | title = OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 11/29/2022 (10:40 PM PT) | author = Smash World Tour | date = November 30, 2022 | publisher = | accessdate = December 6, 2022}}</ref> Per SWT, Nintendo's written notice reads as follows: | |||
{{Quote |quote=It is Nintendo’s expectation that an approved license be secured in order to operate any commercial activity featuring Nintendo IP. It is also expected to secure such a license well in advance of any public announcement. After further review, we’ve found that the Smash World Tour has not met these expectations around health & safety guidelines and has not adhered to our internal partner guidelines. Nintendo will not be able to grant a license for the Smash World Tour Championship 2022 or any Smash World Tour activity in 2023.}} | |||
In a second statement given to '']'' on December 2, 2022, Nintendo claimed that "when we notified the SWT that we would not license their 2022 or 2023 activities, we also let them know verbally that we were not requiring they cancel the 2022 finals event". They also reaffirmed their commitment to Panda as a partner, and stated how "Panda continues to advocate on behalf of the ''Super Smash Bros.'' community". Allegations regarding Bunney's conduct were not addressed, nor was the cancellation of the 2023 World Tour.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.ign.com/articles/nintendo-issues-full-statement-over-smash-world-tour-cancellation | title = Nintendo Issues Full Statement Over Smash World Tour Cancellation | author = Matt T.M. Kim | date = December 2, 2012 | work = | publisher = IGN | accessdate = December 6, 2012 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
SWT quickly responded, stating that the timeframe of Nintendo's actions did not make sense if they intended to let the Smash World Championships proceed. It was also reiterated that Nintendo provided their decision to deny SWT a commercial license in writing. According to SWT, Nintendo acknowledged all potential impacts of the cancellation, including "some positive, some negative, and some really negative".<ref>{{cite web | url = https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1lWrVKGYaAs0Cr12jfJ890yUdHdARkJKvIBr6i0SsQ1k/mobilebasic | title = OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 12/02/2022 (5:35 AM PT) |author = Smash World Tour |date = December 2, 2022 |publisher = Smash World Tour |accessdate = December 6, 2022 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
On December 2, Panda published a statement denying their involvement in the cancellation of the Smash World Championships and most of the accusations against Bunney. However, the statement acknowledged that the dispute between Beyond The Summit and Bunney did occur, and that the latter "spoke in a manner which did not reflect either guidance from Nintendo or our own standards."<ref name="Panda Response 1">{{cite web |url = https://twitter.com/PandaGlobal/status/1598741395870605312 |title = Official Statement by Panda |date = December 2, 2022 |publisher = Panda |accessdate = December 6, 2022 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
Amid the growing controversy, a wave of resignations from the company and the growing number of players boycotting the Panda Cup Finale, Panda made a second statement on December 5, announcing that Bunney was no longer CEO of Panda (although he remains its owner), and that the Panda Cup Finale had been postponed for "due to security concerns."<ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2">{{cite web |url = https://upcomer.com/panda-cup-finale-postponed-as-panda-ceo-resigns |title = Panda Cup 2022 Finale postponed, esports org's CEO steps down |date = December 5, 2022 |first=TJ |last=Denzer |publisher = ] |accessdate = December 6, 2022 }}</ref><ref name="ShackPanda Response 2">{{cite web |url = https://www.shacknews.com/article/133347/panda-global-cup-postponed-ceo-resigns |title = Panda Cup Finale postponed as Panda CEO resigns |date = December 5, 2022 |first=Dylan |last=Tate |publisher = Shack News |accessdate = December 6, 2022 }}</ref> | |||
The next day, Bunney claimed that he had chosen to resign as CEO "to protect the safety and wellbeing of the team", and that he would come forward in the future with evidence that "SWT lied" and "BTS leadership put the community in jeopardy."<ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2"/><ref name="ShackPanda Response 2"/> | |||
====Response from the community==== | ====Response from the community==== | ||
SWT's original announcement led to strong backlash and condemnation from both ''Super Smash Bros.'' players and fans towards both Bunney and Nintendo, with many calling for a boycott of Panda events.<ref name="Kotaku Boycott"> |
SWT's original announcement led to strong backlash and condemnation from both ''Super Smash Bros.'' players and fans towards both Bunney and Nintendo, with many calling for a boycott of Panda events.<ref name="Kotaku Boycott">{{Cite web|url=https://kotaku.com/smash-bros-melee-ultimate-nintendo-tournament-canceled-1849836725|title=Smash Bros. Tournament Fiasco Has Players Boycotting Events|date=November 30, 2022|website=Kotaku}}</ref><ref name="Dexerto Boycott">{{Cite web|url=https://www.dexerto.com/smash/nintendo-slammed-for-forcing-smash-world-tour-2022-to-cancel-weeks-before-finals-1998993/|title=Nintendo & Panda Global slammed after Smash World Tour forced to shut down|website=Dexerto|date=30 November 2022 }}</ref> | ||
On the same day as the SWT statement, VGBootCamp, one of the main organizations behind the Smash World Tour, announced that "based on our recent communications with Nintendo, we would be putting ourselves at further risk if we continued forward with our current plans", that they were unsure of the future of their company due to these communications, and were forced to cancel the upcoming major tournaments Glitch: Duel of Fates and Double Down 2023, leading to further backlash against Nintendo.<ref> |
On the same day as the SWT statement, VGBootCamp, one of the main organizations behind the Smash World Tour, announced that "based on our recent communications with Nintendo, we would be putting ourselves at further risk if we continued forward with our current plans", that they were unsure of the future of their company due to these communications, and were forced to cancel the upcoming major tournaments Glitch: Duel of Fates and Double Down 2023, leading to further backlash against Nintendo.<ref>{{cite tweet |author=VGBC |user=VGBootCamp |number=1597725131430047744 |date=November 29, 2022 |title=Uncertainty Regarding VGBootCamp's Future: Read: https://t.co/tVUvNdx4eA https://t.co/fdR3juD1oq |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118062616/https://twitter.com/vgbootcamp/status/1597725131430047744 |archive-date=January 18, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
Following SWT's statement, players and fans near-universally decided to boycott the Panda Cup Finale, the event acting as the culmination of the Panda Cup circuit. Many top players qualified for the event, both on the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' sides, publicly announced that they would not be attending the event as a result of SWT's allegations |
Following SWT's statement, players and fans near-universally decided to boycott the Panda Cup Finale, the event acting as the culmination of the Panda Cup circuit. Many top players qualified for the event, both on the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' sides, publicly announced that they would not be attending the event as a result of SWT's allegations.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tate |first1=Dylan |title=Ludwig announces Smash invitational on same day as Panda Cup Finale |url=https://upcomer.com/ludwig-announces-smash-invitational-on-same-day-as-panda-cup-finale |access-date=December 6, 2022 |work=] |date=December 2, 2022}}</ref> | ||
Esports organization AITX eSports claimed they would not support Panda or their events in the future, stating "This community is the lifeblood of the game and |
Esports organization AITX eSports claimed they would not support Panda or their events in the future, stating "This community is the lifeblood of the game and we're are deeply saddened to see the efforts of @SmashWorldTour wasted."<ref>{{cite tweet |author=AITX eSports |user=AITXeSports |number=1597762759516884992 |date=November 30, 2022 |title=After some lengthy discussions with our team we've decided that as an organization $AITX will not be supporting @PandaGlobal or their events going forward. This community is the lifeblood of the game and we're are deeply saddened to see the efforts of @SmashWorldTour wasted. |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062909/https://twitter.com/AITXeSports/status/1597762759516884992 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> Player and tournament organizer Aiden "Calvin" McCaig claimed that he would not attend any future event licensed by either Nintendo or Panda in the future, accusing Nintendo of using Panda as "a means to the end of controlling the scene, choking our last drops of independence from us as a community."<ref>{{cite tweet |author=Aiden |user=aidencalvin |number=1597728832299360256 |date=November 29, 2022 |title=I will never attend a publicly licensed Nintendo or Panda Circuit event ever again. I will continue to support grassroots locals and majors, unaffiliated with Nintendo, that have been the lifeblood of our scene for 20+ years. https://t.co/62cp4HHXiY |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062901/https://twitter.com/aidencalvin/status/1597728832299360256 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
Public response to Panda's December 2 statement was negative, and more players announced their intention to boycott the Panda Cup Finale.<ref name="Michael">{{cite news |last1=Michael |first1=Cale |title=Pandexodus begins: iBDW, WaDi, and more are leaving Panda after Smash World Tour cancelation |url=https://dotesports.com/fgc/news/pandexodus-begins-ibdw-wadi-and-more-are-leaving-panda-after-smash-world-tour-cancelation |access-date=December 6, 2022 |work=] |date=December 4, 2022}}</ref><ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2" /> Bunney's claim in December 5 that he would come forward with evidence of wrongdoing from both SWT and BTS was largely mocked by the community.<ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2" /> | |||
To help offset the damage done to the community, Beyond The Summit re-opened registration for their upcoming tournament Mainstage 2022 held two weeks before the Panda Cup Finale (and a week before the cancelled World Championships), with all newly received venue fees going to the SWT organization.<ref></ref> As a result, a number of top players who had originally qualified for the Smash World Championship and/or Panda Cup Finale registered for Mainstage at the last minute, and the event, now seen as de '']'' climax of the competitive scene for 2022, received a large increase in interest.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> | |||
Reactions from players and talent employed by Panda was negative, and many Panda employees resigned from the company in the days following the December 2 response.<ref name="ShackPanda Response 2" /> Those departures included top ''Super Smash Bros.'' players iBDW, ] and WaDi, and prominent commentators Coney, TKBreezy and ].<ref name="Michael" /> | |||
Panda's original December 2 response to the controversy was overwhelmingly negative, and more players announced their boycott of the Panda Cup Finale.<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2"/> Bunney's claim in December 5 that he would come forward with evidence of wrongdoing from both SWT and BTS was largely mocked by the community.<ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2"/> | |||
⚫ | On December 2, popular streamer and tournament organizer ] announced The Scuffed World Tour, an invitational tournament for both ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' conceived as a counter-event to the Panda Cup Finale and a spiritual successor to the Smash World Tour (with "Scuffed World Tour" also making the initials "SWT"), scheduled to overlap with the Grand Finals of the Panda Cup Finale. For both games, invites were extended to 8 players with the most points in the Smash World Tour 2022, and all money raised by the event was pledged to VGBootCamp; several Panda Cup Finale-qualified players expressed interest in attending Ludwig's event instead, and with the eventual postponing of the Panda Cup Finale, the event is no longer planned to take place concurrently with The Scuffed World Tour.<ref>{{cite tweet |last=Ahgren |first=Ludwig |author-link=Ludwig Ahgren |user=LudwigAhgren |number=1598768346635603968 |date=December 2, 2022 |title=In light of Panda/Nintendos lackluster response I'm happy to announce 🎉The Scuffed World Tour🎉 A one day melee/ultimate event Sunday 12/18 Featuring the 8 highest placing SWT competitors All with the goal to raise money for VGBC See you there :) https://t.co/MFEaLE7jxV |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101194513/https://twitter.com/LudwigAhgren/status/1598768346635603968 |archive-date=January 1, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="UpcomerPanda Response 2" /> | ||
Reactions from players and talent employed by Panda was very negative, and many Panda employees resigned from the company in the days following the December 2 response.<ref name="ShackPanda Response 2"/><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> Those departures included top ''Super Smash Bros.'' players iBDW, ] and WaDi, and prominent commentators Coney, TKBreezy and ].<ref name="iBDW leaves"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="WaDi leaves"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="Vikki leaves"></ref> | |||
⚫ | On December 2, popular streamer and tournament organizer ] announced The Scuffed World Tour, an invitational tournament for both ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' conceived as a counter-event to the Panda Cup Finale and a spiritual successor to the Smash World Tour (with "Scuffed World Tour" also making the initials "SWT), scheduled to overlap with the Grand Finals of the Panda Cup Finale. For both games, invites were extended to 8 players with the most points in the Smash World Tour 2022, and all money raised by the event was pledged to VGBootCamp; several Panda Cup Finale-qualified players expressed interest in attending Ludwig's event instead, and with the eventual postponing of the Panda Cup Finale, the event is no longer planned |
||
== Format == | == Format == | ||
=== 2020 and 2022 === | === 2020 and 2022 === | ||
The 2020 and 2022 editions of the circuit followed a point-based format. Tournaments part of the tour would receive a tier, with each giving a number of points to its highest-placing players; when all other tournaments would conclude, the highest-placing players would qualify for the Championships, the final event of the tour, to determine the world champion. The tiers were, from highest to lowest, Platinum, Gold, Super Silver (only in 2022), and Silver; each tier gave the same amount of points per tournament result, except for Silver-tier tournaments which received a sub-ranking in 2002 going from Silver 4, the highest, to Silver 1, the lowest. The points do not accumulate without limit: a player's points are limited to their three best in Platinum results, their three best Gold results, their best single Super Silver result, and the six Silver results which earned them the most points. As the tour was fully focused on traditional singles competition, results for doubles tournaments or other forms of ''Super Smash Bros.'' competition featured at events part of the Smash World Tour had no impact on points, and only open tournaments were eligible, ruling out invitationals.<ref name="Dot22Announced |
The 2020 and 2022 editions of the circuit followed a point-based format. Tournaments part of the tour would receive a tier, with each giving a number of points to its highest-placing players; when all other tournaments would conclude, the highest-placing players would qualify for the Championships, the final event of the tour, to determine the world champion. The tiers were, from highest to lowest, Platinum, Gold, Super Silver (only in 2022), and Silver; each tier gave the same amount of points per tournament result, except for Silver-tier tournaments which received a sub-ranking in 2002 going from Silver 4, the highest, to Silver 1, the lowest. The points do not accumulate without limit: a player's points are limited to their three best in Platinum results, their three best Gold results, their best single Super Silver result, and the six Silver results which earned them the most points. As the tour was fully focused on traditional singles competition, results for doubles tournaments or other forms of ''Super Smash Bros.'' competition featured at events part of the Smash World Tour had no impact on points, and only open tournaments were eligible, ruling out invitationals.<ref name="Dot22Announced"/><ref name="Sheck22Pool"/> | ||
For both the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' tournaments of the ultimately cancelled 2020 Championships, the 31 players with the most points would have qualified, plus one final player who would have qualified via a Last Chance Qualifier tournament taking place on the first day of the event. The 2022 version followed a similar yet different system, also based on points: the highest-scoring player for each of seven territories earned a qualification, with the territories being North America, Central America, Europe, Japan, Oceania, South America, and the "Wild Card Region"; the latter was a spot given to the player with the most points from outside any of the six previous territories. The 23 other players with the most points regardless of territory, and two last players would have been decided via a Last Chance Qualifier, rounding the number of players qualified for the Championships to 32 again.<ref name="Sports22Announced"/> In 2022 tour, the Wild Card Region point leader for ''Melee'' was Sala, an American player eligible for the region due to residing and mainly competing in South Korea, while ''Ultimate''{{'}}s was eMass, a player from Saudi Arabia.<ref name="Upcomer22Qualified"/> | For both the ''Melee'' and ''Ultimate'' tournaments of the ultimately cancelled 2020 Championships, the 31 players with the most points would have qualified, plus one final player who would have qualified via a Last Chance Qualifier tournament taking place on the first day of the event. The 2022 version followed a similar yet different system, also based on points: the highest-scoring player for each of seven territories earned a qualification, with the territories being North America, Central America, Europe, Japan, Oceania, South America, and the "Wild Card Region"; the latter was a spot given to the player with the most points from outside any of the six previous territories. The 23 other players with the most points regardless of territory, and two last players would have been decided via a Last Chance Qualifier, rounding the number of players qualified for the Championships to 32 again.<ref name="Sports22Announced"/> In 2022 tour, the Wild Card Region point leader for ''Melee'' was Sala, an American player eligible for the region due to residing and mainly competing in South Korea, while ''Ultimate''{{'}}s was eMass, a player from Saudi Arabia.<ref name="Upcomer22Qualified"/> | ||
For the 2022 tour, any offline tournament in the world could try to apply for the Smash World Tour as a Silver event, with the organizers accepting or denying their application; all the Platinum and Gold events were decided in advance. |
For the 2022 tour, any offline tournament in the world could try to apply for the Smash World Tour as a Silver event, with the organizers accepting or denying their application; all the Platinum and Gold events were decided in advance. Although it did not take place, the 2022 Smash World Championships would have followed a format similar to 2021's.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.start.gg/tournament/smash-world-tour-championships-2022/details|title=Smash World Tour Championships 2022|website=start.gg}}</ref> Each game would have had a prize pool of $125,000 split between all participants, from $40,000 to the winners to $500 for the eight players tied for last place (25th).<ref>{{cite tweet |author=Smash World Tour 2022 |user=SmashWorldTour |number=1597402715168149504 |date=November 29, 2022 |title=$125K+ for Melee. $125K+ for Ultimate. All on the line at the 2022 Smash World Tour Championships! Registration for the LCQ ends Dec. 1st! This is your chance, don't miss out: https://t.co/1T6cF7yc5O https://t.co/m7Q8Udvc63 |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062920/https://twitter.com/SmashWorldTour/status/1597402715168149504 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
The confirmation of the players qualified for the Smash World Championships in late November 2022 led to some controversy, as, unlike they had claimed in their original ruleset, the organizers counted points for tournaments players had entered but DQ'd from without actually participating; when the discrepancy was pointed out, the organizers added a clause to the rules stating the they could count DQs at their discretion. If the rule had been upheld, Japanese player kept and Chilean player Sekai Doggo would both have qualified for the ''Ultimate'' Championship, but instead came up short points-wise.<ref name="Upcomer22Qualified"/><ref name="DQPoints">{{cite |
The confirmation of the players qualified for the Smash World Championships in late November 2022 led to some controversy, as, unlike they had claimed in their original ruleset, the organizers counted points for tournaments players had entered but DQ'd from without actually participating; when the discrepancy was pointed out, the organizers added a clause to the rules stating the they could count DQs at their discretion. If the rule had been upheld, Japanese player kept and Chilean player Sekai Doggo would both have qualified for the ''Ultimate'' Championship, but instead came up short points-wise.<ref name="Upcomer22Qualified"/><ref name="DQPoints">{{cite tweet |last=Nestico |first=Andrew |user=PracticalTAS |number=1596347274338017280 |date=November 26, 2022 |title=What the heck is going on. If you remove dqs from the point values for silver tier events, Sekai Doggo (and kept) should have qualified for SWT. The SWT rulebook previously said that dqs should be removed, but *today* they added a clause saying they can choose not to remove dqs. https://t.co/KhIk0X008c |language=en |access-date=February 23, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212062913/https://twitter.com/PracticalTAS/status/1596347274338017280 |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> | ||
=== 2021 === | === 2021 === | ||
The 2021 edition used a completely different format due to the COVID-19 pandemic making holding large, open offline tournaments impossible; instead of having pre-existing events be part of the tour, the Smash World Tour organized its own events dedicated to qualification.<ref name="Washington2020"/><ref name="InvenBack"/> | The 2021 edition used a completely different format due to the COVID-19 pandemic making holding large, open offline tournaments impossible; instead of having pre-existing events be part of the tour, the Smash World Tour organized its own events dedicated to qualification.<ref name="Washington2020"/><ref name="InvenBack"/> | ||
To qualify for the Championships, players would have to place high in the Regional Finals, 16-players offline tournaments; each region had a different number of players that would qualify for the Championships at each Regional Finals. To avoid large concentrations of players during the pandemic, ''Ultimate'' players had to |
To qualify for the Championships, players would have to place high in the Regional Finals, 16-players offline tournaments; each region had a different number of players that would qualify for the Championships at each Regional Finals. To avoid large concentrations of players during the pandemic, ''Ultimate'' players had to qualify for the Regional Finals via Qualifiers, large open tournaments held online, while notable ''Melee'' players were directly invited to the Regional Finals. Each tournament had eight final entrants joining via the Last Chance Qualifier, making the total number of participants in the Championship 40, instead of 32 like the other years.<ref name="InvenBack"/> | ||
The regions for both games are North America East, North America West (for Canada and the United States), Central America (including Mexico, although it is not considered part of Central America), South America, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania.<ref name="Ginx21"/> Not counting the Last Chance Qualifier, the 2021 Smash World Championship was divided in two parts. In the first two days, a ] phase saw all 40 entrants divided in eight groups of five players who would all face each other, with a ] phrase taking place on the third and final day. For each group of the round-robin phase, the player ranked first started the bracket phase in winners side, the players ranked 2nd and 3rd would start |
The regions for both games are North America East, North America West (for Canada and the United States), Central America (including Mexico, although it is not considered part of Central America), South America, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania.<ref name="Ginx21"/> Not counting the Last Chance Qualifier, the 2021 Smash World Championship was divided in two parts. In the first two days, a ] phase saw all 40 entrants divided in eight groups of five players who would all face each other, with a ] phrase taking place on the third and final day. For each group of the round-robin phase, the player ranked first started the bracket phase in winners' side, the players ranked 2nd and 3rd would start in losers' side, and the players ranked 4th and 5th would be directly eliminated. The $75,000 prize pool for each game would have been divided between all 40 qualified players, from $20,000 going to the winner to $500 going to the players ranked below top 24.<ref name="21Schedule"/> | ||
In addition to the World Championship and Last Chance Qualifier, a few side-events took place during the event, mainly for players who had participated in the Last Chance Qualifier but failed to qualify: doubles tournaments for both games, a "low tier" tournament (for characters considered lesser on the competitive scene) for ''Melee' |
In addition to the World Championship and Last Chance Qualifier, a few side-events took place during the event, mainly for players who had participated in the Last Chance Qualifier but failed to qualify: doubles tournaments for both games, a "low tier" tournament (for characters considered lesser on the competitive scene) for ''Melee'', and a Squad Strike tournament for ''Ultimate''.<ref name="HubsChampionship"/> | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Line 120: | Line 100: | ||
{{Competitive Super Smash Bros.}} | {{Competitive Super Smash Bros.}} | ||
{{Esports}} | {{Esports}} | ||
{{CCBYSASource|sourcepath=https://liquipedia.net/smash/Smash_World_Tour/2022|sourcearticle=Smash World Tour 2022|revision=1125862672}} | |||
] | ] |
Latest revision as of 00:26, 30 October 2024
Annual Super Smash Bros. tournament circuitThis article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Official logo of the 2022 Smash World Tour | |
Game | Super Smash Bros. Melee Super Smash Bros. Ultimate |
---|---|
Founded | March 1, 2020 |
First season | 2020 |
Ceased | November 29, 2022 |
Owner(s) | Smash World Tour |
Commissioner | Calvin "GimR" Lofton Matthew "Aposl" Lofton Justin Wykowski |
Last champion(s) | Plup (Melee) MkLeo (Ultimate) |
Official website | smashworldtour |
The Smash World Tour (SWT) was an annual Super Smash Bros. tournament circuit operating all around the world, but based in the United States. It took place three consecutive years from 2020 to 2022, although only the 2021 edition was completed fully, and mostly consisted of a series of tournaments aiming to determine a number of players qualifying for the Smash World Championships, major singles tournaments for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate; the Championships themselves acted as the culmination of the tour, with the crowning of world champions for both games.
The inaugural 2020 edition of the tournament was announced on March 1, 2020; however the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all offline Super Smash Bros. tournaments, and therefore the premature end of the tournament mid-March. It returned the following year, successfully completing, and returned once again in 2022. The 2021 Championship's prize pool of a combined $150,000 remains one of the highest prize pools for any event in Super Smash Bros. history, and the 2022 Championship's prize pool of $250,000 was set to be the highest in history. In total, the 2022 Smash World Tour included over 6,400 offline tournaments and featured over 325,000 players, making it the largest tour in the history of esports.
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the 2022 Smash World Championships, SWT organizers announced the abrupt cancellation of both the 2022 Championships and the 2023 Smash World Tour, claiming to have been forced to shut down both by Super Smash Bros. publisher Nintendo. As part of their statement, they also accused Alan Bunney, the CEO and owner of Panda, another esports organization, of severe misconduct against the community, including efforts to sabotage the Smash World Tour in favor of the Panda Cup, a competing circuit organized by Panda which, unlike the SWT, was officially licensed by Nintendo. The announcement caused a major controversy in the competitive Super Smash Bros. community, and resulted in near-universal condemnation against both Nintendo, which denied some of the accusations and did not address the others, and Panda, which denied all accusations safe from one occurrence of misconduct from Bunney. Following further backslash, which saw a wave of resignations from Panda employees and many top players deciding to boycott the upcoming Panda Cup Finale, Panda announced the resignation of Bunney as CEO (but not owner) and the postponement of the Panda Cup Finale.
History
2020
The Smash World Tour was created by siblings Calvin "GimR" Lofton and Matthew "Aposl" Lofton, founders of the longstanding Super Smash Bros. tournament organization VGBootCamp, and Justin Wykowski, a producer for Super Smash Con. After announcement, Calvin said that the Smash World Tour was "the next step to push Smash toward a tier one esport", and making the game more profitable for tournament organizers (TOs) and competitors. While the tour was partnered with Twitch and the fighting game website start.gg, it had not waited to partner with Nintendo, which The Washington Post deemed to have "mired past attempts" at creating prominent Super Smash Bros. circuits; however, the organizers were having active discussions with Nintendo—Wykowski said that the team's "goal was to go ahead and create something that then to Nintendo as an opportunity to be able to work with the Smash community directly".
However, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic led the Smash World Tour to cancel all of its major events for March and April 2020 mid-March, and eventually all events for the rest of the year; only two relatively small tournaments took place before the cancellation, the 86-entrants Don't Stomp On Me and the 39-entrants SoCal The Hype, both on March 14, 2020.
2021
The 2021 edition of the tour was announced on February 20, 2021. Once again, the circuit partnered with Twitch, but not with Nintendo. The originally planned prize pool for both games combined was $210,000 (including the money prizes for qualification tournaments prior to the Championship), the highest prize pool in Super Smash Bros. history; the prize pool for the Championships alone was $150,000, making it the largest prize pool for a single event in Super Smash Bros. history: the prize pool was $75,000 for each game.
As part of the 2021 tour, 19 events specifically created for the tour took place, including 11 "Qualifiers", Ultimate-exclusive online open tournaments, six "Regional Finals", 16-players invitational featuring selected players for Melee, and players who qualified via the Qualifier tournaments for Ultimate. The final two events were the Last Chance Qualifier event to determine the final entrants of the Smash World Championship, the circuit's final event. The switch from the original system making independent tournaments part of the tour via a point system to a series of events dedicated solely to the circuit where offline tournaments would have a limited number of players, took place in order to make the event possible in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, although the organizers hoped to resume using the 2020 format the following year.
The pandemic still caused a number of issues: both Oceania Regional Finals were cancelled, with Australian players Sora and Jdizzle selected as Oceania representatives for Melee and Ultimate respectively due to being ranked #1 in Australia for their respective games. Due to the state of the pandemic in South America, the Ultimate Regional Finals in the region where held online, while Melee's were cancelled entirely, with a panel directly selecting Chilean players Chape and HP to represent the region at the Championship. The East Asia Regional Finals, which took place in Japan and were meant to feature players who had qualified via either the Japan Qualifier and East Asia South Qualifier, encountered significant issues as none of the qualified East Asia South players (all from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, or South Korea) were able to travel to Japan for it. As such, Hong Kong player XIFL, who had taken first place in the East Asia South Qualifiers, directly qualified for the Championship, and the number of qualifying Championship spots for the now all-Japanese East Asia Regional Finals was reduced from 6 to 5.
The 2021 Smash World Tour culminated with the Smash World Championships on December 17–19, 2021, featuring 40 players in both the Melee and Ultimate tournaments. American player Plup became the inaugural Melee world champion, and Mexican player MkLeo becoming the inaugural Ultimate world champion.
2022
The 2022 edition of the Smash World Tour was announced on March 9, 2022. It marked the return of the original planned 2022 format, using a point system applicable to many tournaments part of the tour and working with the Smash World Tour, but unlike tournaments part of the 2021 tour, not organized directly by them. The organizers once again partnered with Twitch, with new partner online coaching platform Metafy. The prize pool for the Smash World Championship at the end of the tour was $250,000, beating the previous year's $150,000 record for biggest event prize pool in Super Smash Bros. history. Platinum and Gold events, the highest tier ratings for the tour, took place in countries whose Super Smash Bros. scenes usually receive little attention internationally, such as Brazil, Cuba, Qatar, and South Korea.
The tour officially started with Virtuocity Smash Open 2022, a Gold-tier tournament taking place on March 17–19, 2022 in Doha, Qatar, although several tournaments dating as early as March 12 were retroactively recognized as Silver-tier events. In total, the 2022 Smash World Tour included over 6,400 offline tournaments, and featured over 325,000 players. The completion of the gold-tier tournament Apex 2022 on November 20, 2022, the final event of the tour before the Last Chance Qualifiers and Championships, marked the end of the points ranking competition, and the confirmation of the 30 qualified players for each game (not counting two future final two Last Chance Qualifier qualified players); American player Hungrybox topped the ranks for Melee, while MkLeo topped the ranks for Ultimate.
Cancellation
This section needs expansion with: The second, full statement from Alan Bunney. You can help by adding to it. (December 2022) |
On November 29, 2022, less than two weeks before the Championships were scheduled to begin, the organizers of the Smash World Tour announced that both the Melee and Ultimate Championships had been cancelled, prematurely ending the Smash World Tour 2022, as well as announcing that the circuit would not return in 2023. In their statement, they claimed to have had multiple conversations with Nintendo regarding an official license for the Smash World Tour, and that Nintendo appeared supportive, though a license had not been granted before the 2022 circuit had begun. They claimed that on November 23, Nintendo had informed them that a license would not be granted for either the 2022 Championships or the 2023 circuit, and that Nintendo had told them that the lack of a license meant the events were not allowed to operate. Smash World Tour accused Alan Bunney, then-CEO of the esports organization Panda, of encouraging tournament organizers to join the Panda Cup—an officially licensed circuit run by Panda—rather than the Smash World Tour, and using his partnership with Nintendo to threaten others with a cease and desist order should they not comply. Smash World Tour further stated that Bunney attempted to seize broadcasting rights from the organization Beyond the Summit, which was corroborated by David "LD" Gorman, the organization's co-founder.
After a request for comment from Kotaku, Nintendo responded, saying they "were unable to come to an agreement" with the Smash World Tour for a license in 2023, though Nintendo "did not request any changes to or cancellation of remaining events in 2022, including the 2022 Championships event, considering the negative impact on the players who were already planning to participate". Smash World Tour disputed this, saying that Nintendo had confirmed that the 2022 Championships and 2023 circuit were not to proceed, and that Nintendo acknowledged all potential impacts of the cancellation, including "some positive, some negative, and some really negative". According to Smash World Tour, Nintendo claimed that a license be granted "well in advance" of a public announcement in order for commercial events to be operated featuring Nintendo's intellectual property, and that the Smash World Tour had failed both health and safety guidelines and "internal partner guidelines", meaning Nintendo would be unable to grant a license for any upcoming Smash World Tour activity. In a second statement to IGN on December 2, Nintendo said that they "let know verbally that not requiring they cancel the 2022 finals event", as well as reaffirming their commitment to Panda as a partner. Smash World Tour stated that the timeline of Nintendo's actions were illogical if they intended to allow the Championships proceed.
The same day, Panda published a statement denying their involvement in the cancellation of the Championships. They also denyed most of the accusations against Bunney, though they acknowledged that the dispute between him and Beyond the Summit did occur, and that he "spoke in a manner that did not reflect either guidance from Nintendo or our own standards". After a wave of internal resignations and a growing number of players boycotting the Panda Cup Finale, Panda announced on December 5 that Bunney was no longer CEO, and that the Finale had been postponed "due to security concerns". Bunney claimed on the next day that he had resigned "to protect the safety and wellbeing of the team", and that he would release a statement in the future with evidence that Smash World Tour's statement was untruthful and Beyond the Summit's leadership "put the community in jeopardy".
Response from the community
SWT's original announcement led to strong backlash and condemnation from both Super Smash Bros. players and fans towards both Bunney and Nintendo, with many calling for a boycott of Panda events.
On the same day as the SWT statement, VGBootCamp, one of the main organizations behind the Smash World Tour, announced that "based on our recent communications with Nintendo, we would be putting ourselves at further risk if we continued forward with our current plans", that they were unsure of the future of their company due to these communications, and were forced to cancel the upcoming major tournaments Glitch: Duel of Fates and Double Down 2023, leading to further backlash against Nintendo.
Following SWT's statement, players and fans near-universally decided to boycott the Panda Cup Finale, the event acting as the culmination of the Panda Cup circuit. Many top players qualified for the event, both on the Melee and Ultimate sides, publicly announced that they would not be attending the event as a result of SWT's allegations.
Esports organization AITX eSports claimed they would not support Panda or their events in the future, stating "This community is the lifeblood of the game and we're are deeply saddened to see the efforts of @SmashWorldTour wasted." Player and tournament organizer Aiden "Calvin" McCaig claimed that he would not attend any future event licensed by either Nintendo or Panda in the future, accusing Nintendo of using Panda as "a means to the end of controlling the scene, choking our last drops of independence from us as a community."
Public response to Panda's December 2 statement was negative, and more players announced their intention to boycott the Panda Cup Finale. Bunney's claim in December 5 that he would come forward with evidence of wrongdoing from both SWT and BTS was largely mocked by the community.
Reactions from players and talent employed by Panda was negative, and many Panda employees resigned from the company in the days following the December 2 response. Those departures included top Super Smash Bros. players iBDW, Plup and WaDi, and prominent commentators Coney, TKBreezy and VikkiKitty.
On December 2, popular streamer and tournament organizer Ludwig announced The Scuffed World Tour, an invitational tournament for both Melee and Ultimate conceived as a counter-event to the Panda Cup Finale and a spiritual successor to the Smash World Tour (with "Scuffed World Tour" also making the initials "SWT"), scheduled to overlap with the Grand Finals of the Panda Cup Finale. For both games, invites were extended to 8 players with the most points in the Smash World Tour 2022, and all money raised by the event was pledged to VGBootCamp; several Panda Cup Finale-qualified players expressed interest in attending Ludwig's event instead, and with the eventual postponing of the Panda Cup Finale, the event is no longer planned to take place concurrently with The Scuffed World Tour.
Format
2020 and 2022
The 2020 and 2022 editions of the circuit followed a point-based format. Tournaments part of the tour would receive a tier, with each giving a number of points to its highest-placing players; when all other tournaments would conclude, the highest-placing players would qualify for the Championships, the final event of the tour, to determine the world champion. The tiers were, from highest to lowest, Platinum, Gold, Super Silver (only in 2022), and Silver; each tier gave the same amount of points per tournament result, except for Silver-tier tournaments which received a sub-ranking in 2002 going from Silver 4, the highest, to Silver 1, the lowest. The points do not accumulate without limit: a player's points are limited to their three best in Platinum results, their three best Gold results, their best single Super Silver result, and the six Silver results which earned them the most points. As the tour was fully focused on traditional singles competition, results for doubles tournaments or other forms of Super Smash Bros. competition featured at events part of the Smash World Tour had no impact on points, and only open tournaments were eligible, ruling out invitationals.
For both the Melee and Ultimate tournaments of the ultimately cancelled 2020 Championships, the 31 players with the most points would have qualified, plus one final player who would have qualified via a Last Chance Qualifier tournament taking place on the first day of the event. The 2022 version followed a similar yet different system, also based on points: the highest-scoring player for each of seven territories earned a qualification, with the territories being North America, Central America, Europe, Japan, Oceania, South America, and the "Wild Card Region"; the latter was a spot given to the player with the most points from outside any of the six previous territories. The 23 other players with the most points regardless of territory, and two last players would have been decided via a Last Chance Qualifier, rounding the number of players qualified for the Championships to 32 again. In 2022 tour, the Wild Card Region point leader for Melee was Sala, an American player eligible for the region due to residing and mainly competing in South Korea, while Ultimate's was eMass, a player from Saudi Arabia.
For the 2022 tour, any offline tournament in the world could try to apply for the Smash World Tour as a Silver event, with the organizers accepting or denying their application; all the Platinum and Gold events were decided in advance. Although it did not take place, the 2022 Smash World Championships would have followed a format similar to 2021's. Each game would have had a prize pool of $125,000 split between all participants, from $40,000 to the winners to $500 for the eight players tied for last place (25th).
The confirmation of the players qualified for the Smash World Championships in late November 2022 led to some controversy, as, unlike they had claimed in their original ruleset, the organizers counted points for tournaments players had entered but DQ'd from without actually participating; when the discrepancy was pointed out, the organizers added a clause to the rules stating the they could count DQs at their discretion. If the rule had been upheld, Japanese player kept and Chilean player Sekai Doggo would both have qualified for the Ultimate Championship, but instead came up short points-wise.
2021
The 2021 edition used a completely different format due to the COVID-19 pandemic making holding large, open offline tournaments impossible; instead of having pre-existing events be part of the tour, the Smash World Tour organized its own events dedicated to qualification.
To qualify for the Championships, players would have to place high in the Regional Finals, 16-players offline tournaments; each region had a different number of players that would qualify for the Championships at each Regional Finals. To avoid large concentrations of players during the pandemic, Ultimate players had to qualify for the Regional Finals via Qualifiers, large open tournaments held online, while notable Melee players were directly invited to the Regional Finals. Each tournament had eight final entrants joining via the Last Chance Qualifier, making the total number of participants in the Championship 40, instead of 32 like the other years.
The regions for both games are North America East, North America West (for Canada and the United States), Central America (including Mexico, although it is not considered part of Central America), South America, Europe, East Asia, and Oceania. Not counting the Last Chance Qualifier, the 2021 Smash World Championship was divided in two parts. In the first two days, a round-robin phase saw all 40 entrants divided in eight groups of five players who would all face each other, with a double-elimination bracket phrase taking place on the third and final day. For each group of the round-robin phase, the player ranked first started the bracket phase in winners' side, the players ranked 2nd and 3rd would start in losers' side, and the players ranked 4th and 5th would be directly eliminated. The $75,000 prize pool for each game would have been divided between all 40 qualified players, from $20,000 going to the winner to $500 going to the players ranked below top 24.
In addition to the World Championship and Last Chance Qualifier, a few side-events took place during the event, mainly for players who had participated in the Last Chance Qualifier but failed to qualify: doubles tournaments for both games, a "low tier" tournament (for characters considered lesser on the competitive scene) for Melee, and a Squad Strike tournament for Ultimate.
References
- ^ Bhansali, Zane (March 12, 2020). "The Smash World Tour, boasting a $250,000 prize pool, wants to make Smash a tier one esport". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Jarrard, Chris (March 12, 2020). "Smash World Tour cancels Pound 2020, events suspended through April". Shack News. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Richman, Olivia (February 21, 2021). "The Smash World Tour is back for 2021 with a big prize pool and hybrid tourney style". Iven Global. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ "Official 2021 Smash World Tour schedule".
- "Don't Stomp On Me". start.gg. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- "SoCal The Hype". SoCal The Hype. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- "Le Smash World Tour 2021 : Tout ce qu'il faut savoir". Smash Notes (in French). 22 February 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Aquino, Andrés (February 21, 2021). "Smash World Tour 2021: Schedule, format, prize pool, and more". Ginx TV. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Smash World Tour 2022 (November 11, 2021). "A COVID-19 Update https://t.co/IbdkMjdC0O" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Smash World Tour 2022 (June 21, 2021). "Due to COVID-19, we have a few updates for the Smash World Tour's in-person Regional Finals schedule - full announcement below. Updated Schedule: https://t.co/3MDlur27KO https://t.co/TYYfqNl4EI" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Smash World Tour 2022 (November 25, 2021). "A COVID-19 update regarding the East Asia Ultimate Regional Finals this weekend. https://t.co/lgcGJmOmdN" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - "The Smash World Tour Championships". smash.gg. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
- Clippinger, Jeffery (December 20, 2021). "MkLeo Takes the First Super Smash Bros. Ultimate World Tour". The Game Haus. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Taylor, Nicholas (December 19, 2021). "Smash World Tour 2021 Championships results". Event Hubs. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Bayrou, Mert (December 22, 2021). "MkLeo termine une année 2021 impressionnante et remporte le Smash World Tour". Le Bayrou (in French). Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Michael, Cale (March 9, 2022). "Smash World Tour 2022 returns to offline format with $250,000 for Super Smash Bros. Melee, Ultimate". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Mejia, Ozzie (March 9, 2022). "Smash World Tour 2022 features $250,000 prize pool, global standings". Shack News. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Tate, Dylan (March 9, 2022). "Every platinum and gold event in the 2022 Smash World Tour". Upcomer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Snoody, Zach (March 10, 2022). "Smash World Tour Announced for 2022 with offline events across the world". esports.gg. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- "Virtuocity Smash Open 2022". start.gg. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Wales, Matt (December 2, 2022). "Nintendo addresses controversial Smash World Tour fan competition closure in lengthy statement". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Matt T.M. Kim (December 2, 2022). "Nintendo Issues Full Statement Over Smash World Tour Cancellation". IGN. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Tate, Dylan (November 28, 2022). "All 2022 Smash World Tour Championships qualified players". Upcomer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Weatherbed, Jess (November 30, 2022). "Nintendo has shut down the Smash World Tour". The Verge.
- Šimić, Ivan (November 30, 2022). "Smash World Tour in jeopardy following cancellation". Esportsinsider.
- "Smash World Tour Official Statement". November 29, 2022.
- LD (November 29, 2022). "Alan spent several months basically running a protection racket telling TOs including BTS "it'd be a shame if your event got shutdown for being unlicensed" in an effort to scare them into signing onto the Cup. BTS will absolutely never participate in a circuit led by Alan. https://t.co/8NyqobpHkT" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- "Nintendo Shuts Down Smash World Tour, Organizers 'Losing Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars' [Updates]". Kotaku. November 30, 2022.
- ^ Smash World Tour (November 30, 2022). "OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 11/29/2022 (10:40 PM PT)". Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Smash World Tour (December 2, 2022). "OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY SMASH WORLD TOUR 12/02/2022 (5:35 AM PT)". Smash World Tour. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Matt T.M. Kim (December 2, 2012). "Nintendo Issues Full Statement Over Smash World Tour Cancellation". IGN. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
- Panda (December 2, 2022). "https://t.co/KmCiKddaqh" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 21, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- Panda (December 5, 2022). "https://t.co/Y7xbon04YN" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 7, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- ^ Denzer, TJ (December 5, 2022). "Panda Cup 2022 Finale postponed, esports org's CEO steps down". Upcomer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- ^ Tate, Dylan (December 5, 2022). "Panda Cup Finale postponed as Panda CEO resigns". Shack News. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Alan (2022-12-07). "My Statement". Medium. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- "Smash Bros. Tournament Fiasco Has Players Boycotting Events". Kotaku. November 30, 2022.
- "Nintendo & Panda Global slammed after Smash World Tour forced to shut down". Dexerto. 30 November 2022.
- VGBC (November 29, 2022). "Uncertainty Regarding VGBootCamp's Future: Read: https://t.co/tVUvNdx4eA https://t.co/fdR3juD1oq" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 18, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- Tate, Dylan (December 2, 2022). "Ludwig announces Smash invitational on same day as Panda Cup Finale". Upcomer. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- AITX eSports (November 30, 2022). "After some lengthy discussions with our team we've decided that as an organization $AITX will not be supporting @PandaGlobal or their events going forward. This community is the lifeblood of the game and we're are deeply saddened to see the efforts of @SmashWorldTour wasted" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- Aiden (November 29, 2022). "I will never attend a publicly licensed Nintendo or Panda Circuit event ever again. I will continue to support grassroots locals and majors, unaffiliated with Nintendo, that have been the lifeblood of our scene for 20+ years. https://t.co/62cp4HHXiY" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- ^ Michael, Cale (December 4, 2022). "Pandexodus begins: iBDW, WaDi, and more are leaving Panda after Smash World Tour cancelation". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
- Ahgren, Ludwig (December 2, 2022). "In light of Panda/Nintendos lackluster response I'm happy to announce 🎉The Scuffed World Tour🎉 A one day melee/ultimate event Sunday 12/18 Featuring the 8 highest placing SWT competitors All with the goal to raise money for VGBC See you there :) https://t.co/MFEaLE7jxV" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 1, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
- "Smash World Tour Championships 2022". start.gg.
- Smash World Tour 2022 (November 29, 2022). "$125K+ for Melee. $125K+ for Ultimate. All on the line at the 2022 Smash World Tour Championships! Registration for the LCQ ends Dec. 1st! This is your chance, don't miss out: https://t.co/1T6cF7yc5O https://t.co/m7Q8Udvc63" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Nestico, Andrew (November 26, 2022). "What the heck is going on. If you remove dqs from the point values for silver tier events, Sekai Doggo (and kept) should have qualified for SWT. The SWT rulebook previously said that dqs should be removed, but *today* they added a clause saying they can choose not to remove dqs. https://t.co/KhIk0X008c" (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 12, 2022. Retrieved February 23, 2023 – via Twitter.
External links
Super Smash Bros. in esports | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Super Smash Bros. series | |||||||
Notable players |
| ||||||
Notable teams |
| ||||||
Notable casters | |||||||
Tournaments and events | |||||||
Lists of tournaments | |||||||
Related |
As of this edit, this article uses content from "Smash World Tour 2022", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.
Categories: