Although Super Smash Bros. has had a thriving competitive scene for over two decades, Nintendo’s support for the dedicated community has been slow, spotty, and confusing for the majority of that time.
Ninja, a professional Twitch streamer, sent out a mysterious tweet in 2018 indicating that he was working on something special for the Smash community, and then nothing happened. He’s finally spoken up about the situation and what might have been.
Ninja was asked what he was planning with Smash while participating in Ludwig‘s recent poker stream.
Ninja was planning to put an extra $500,000 into the Super Smash Bros. prize pool, according to the popular streamer. Ultimate will be present at Evo 2019 to make the tournament even more spectacular and to show support for the scene.
Those plans, however, fell through, according to reports, because Nintendo stopped responding to Ninja after he posted his teaser tweet, despite initially showing interest.
Obviously, this is all coming from Ninja’s perspective on the situation, but anyone who has followed the Smash community for any length of time is unlikely to be surprised by this.
Back in 2013, Nintendo attempted to prevent Super Smash Bros. from being released. Melee was initially banned from being streamed at Evo that year, but was eventually reinstated prior to the event.
There have been numerous other instances of Nintendo abruptly withdrawing official support for events, blocking or denying partnership deals, and even sending cease and desist letters to tournament organizers over the years, culminating in an anonymous letter released in 2020 detailing a slew of alleged actions by the Mario family in stifling Smash Bros.-related tournaments.
The community would have to wait until 2020 for an officially sanctioned professional circuit in the Smash World Tour, which is not run by Nintendo, and now Panda Global is hosting their own official Super Smash Bros. tournament. In 2022, the North American Circuit will be held.
Even if Ninja wanted to make the same offer today, he couldn’t because Smash Ultimate will not be included in Evo 2022 due to Nintendo’s decision — possibly due to the fact that the major fighting game event is now co-owned by one of their biggest competitors, Sony.
The competitive Smash community is in much better shape than it was just a few years ago, but much of that progress is due to players and organizers working hard to gain recognition and support.
Nintendo’s competitive gaming strategy continues to lag behind almost everyone else in the fighting game community and the video game industry as a whole, and this is largely by design.
It will be fascinating to see how Nintendo adapts and evolves in its relationships with its most ardent fans over the coming years, but things appear to be gradually improving.
