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Nintendo has found itself in the middle of a new controversy, this time involving the eSports community around its online multiplayer game. Splatoon 2.
The controversy began last night, when the official organizers of the Splatoon 2 North American Open tournament informed players and fans that the live broadcast of the event would be canceled. Although the event, which began on December 5, would still take place, the sudden cancellation of the live broadcast has led many to believe that it is because many of the best teams participating in the event expressed their support for the Super Smash Bros. competitive community.
Nintendo has recently gone after the Smash. Bros competitive community on using mods for Super Smash Bros Melee Y Latest. Nintendo has sent several cease and desist letters to the Big House Tournament organizers for using a mod called Slippi, which would allow the games with various matchmaking features to be played online with emulated copies of the game. Nintendo has been notoriously protective of Super Smash Bros. to the point that members of the competitive scene have expressed great frustrations over his decisions in recent years.
He was informed by Splatoon 2 tournament organizer, commentator, and a competitive gamer known as SlimyQuagsire that about 30% of the teams in the tournament had names expressing their support for Smash bros.
Slimy, a commentator for EndGame.TV, alleges that the reason the broadcast was closed was due to the Smash Bros. support for. “It’s kind of funny that they cut off their own ‘support’ that they love to parade as such a fantastic thing, just because the Splatoon community wanted to stand in solidarity with the other scenes that Nintendo directly harms.” He stated publicly on Twitter, before writing two hashtags, #FreeMelee and #SaveSmash.
Thousands of Splatoon 2 Fans and members of the competitive community adopted the two hashtags, along with #FreeSplatoon, in protest at the decision to cancel the livestream, and they have all been trending on Twitter, in and out.
While there is no definitive proof that Nintendo is canceling the Super Smash Bros live stream, members of the Splatoon community decided to create their own unofficial event today featuring the top four teams in North America. EndGame TV would be responsible for the event, presenting it on its Twitch channel, nicknamed Squid house. There, a grassroots tournament would be held between the four best teams, with a prize pool provided by donations from the Splatoon 2 community.
The community would eventually raise more than $ 28,000 in the few hours of the tournament for the first-place team, the highest jackpot ever. Splatoon history, won by the North American champions FTWaveDash. The prize pool was capped at $ 25,000, and any extra money went to charity.
Nintendo, for its part, has been quiet throughout the controversy at this point, with the North American Open ending with most of the remaining teams participating.
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