 Hey everybody, we have a big story for you today. It's about Nintendo. It's about Super Smash Bros Maybe some of you have heard this already Maybe some of you haven't because this deals with the competitive Smash Bros scene and what is being accused of Nintendo? essentially destroying The Smash Community when it comes to competitive gaming now some of you guys aren't going to care about this But I think there is something to take away from this that is extremely important to be critical of Nintendo of doing and It's something that I want to make sure we cover correctly. So Nintendo sent out a cease and desist a big house. I'm not going to go too big into this They were a company trying to run a Super Smash Bros Tournament, I'm not going to get into the particulars on that case, but there is a long history of Nintendo Literally, I don't know blocking the Smash Bros community for me and more than it really is in the competitive scene and The reason it kind of flew under the radar is everyone was waiting for Nintendo to just give in and finally do Something even if it wasn't monetary support, which is what literally everyone else does for every other competitive game Whether it's Madden whether it's Call of Duty whether it's Street Fighter doesn't matter what the game is It's always supported by the publisher with money and sponsorships But they're not even trying to get Nintendo to do that. This comes from a tweet longer It has been backed up by other people in the Smash community such as Leffen So let's just read this tweet longer. It's really long But I feel like it contains a lot of critical Details that we need to be sure that we are being critical of Nintendo for and I understand the person here says that You know, they're not You know that they're hoping a journalist or something to go along and verify the sources I haven't been able to verify anything I reached out to a few people The only thing I've heard from the people I've reached out to they're from the Smash community is that when they read this Twit longer, this is exactly the experience that they had and that they're aware of and that people have told them So take that for what it is. Let's just get into what's happening with the Smash community and why Nintendo It's just blackballing it for seemingly no reason other than to reap benefits That doesn't actually benefit the community itself. Let's get into the twit longer So it says how Nintendo has hurt the Smash community This was written months prior to Nintendo Sending a cease and desist a big house. It was not written with that context in mind This is being released anonymously for obvious reasons. You know people can get in trouble There's a lot of a lot of bad stuff in here So to begin I want to state that I am not a journalist What I am writing below is directly from what I've been told by the individuals who work at these companies and are deeply familiar with the Business dealings of these companies by the nature of their position in eSports I did not obtain emails contracts or documents to verify their claims I am merely trusting their word if a journalist wants to take it to the next level and check everything I would encourage it. I also want to point out that what I write below does not just include melee Most of what I'm about to describe applies to Smash 4, Ultimate, even Brawl as well All Smash scenes have been held back by Nintendo's actions I'm writing this for the purpose of making the community at large aware of the things that I and many other members of the community Haven't aware of for years again a Leffen as an example that's one massive public Smash Bros. competitive player that has actually backed these claims But we're simply unwilling to talk about publicly because of the hope that Nintendo would make something happen The hope is pretty much gone for me now So I feel completely okay with sharing what I know for the longest time It has been known that Nintendo wanted to avoid supporting the Smash eSports scene in a way that helps us grow past the grassroots level Nintendo in is this entity that for cultural or financial reasons has simply chosen to not get involved in eSports with Smash At least not on the level that publishers get involved in most major eSports. We've heard quotes from top Executives at Nintendo many times about their disinterest in competitive gaming We accept this because it is their intellectual property and they can have whatever vision they see fit for it However, Nintendo's fancy is less innocent when you understand that they also Deliberately prevent other entities from helping our scene through various actions or inaction Furthermore, these acts have gone on while stamping their names on our grassroots events or inviting a few of our personalities to their events We regularly get a smidgen of hope that they're taking steps in the right direction But no significant changes ever take place. They directly benefit from our community's existence While providing relatively little support in taking actions that hurt our scene This note is written to shed light on the different ways Nintendo has stopped the scene from growing as part of this community You deserve to know what many top players and influencers in the Smash scene have known for years The only reason I speak on this now is because I feel we're now at the point where we have nothing to lose in the past We'd be afraid to speak publicly because there was some hope that we were so close to having a real eSports relationship with Nintendo only to have that opportunity consistently slip away Third-party entities that have attempted to work with Smash There are several entities that have attempted to work with Nintendo to create events for Melee Smash 4 and Ultimate The following are just some of the bigger eSports entities that were brought up to meet ELEAGUE, the organization that has brought Counter-Strike, Street Fighter and many other games to ESPN had attempted to throw a large event for Smash In the end they only got the rights to rebroadcast the E3 Ultimate Invitational My source explained to me that the rebroadcast rights served mostly as a consolation from Nintendo as Nintendo wasn't cooperating on allowing them to run a more meaningful Smash event HTC after HTC throw down a successfully capped one-day event ran by HTC eSports They had an interest in running a Smash circuit with more money than we had ever seen in Smash However, because an official Nintendo Switch circuit was just about finalized HTC was asked to instead aim to sponsor the main circuit rather than run a competing circuit Thus HTC was backed out on running the circuit under the expectation that a Twitch slash Nintendo circuit would come to fruition As we now know this circuit never came to be as I will discuss in the Twitch section below ESL ESL made an attempt to work with Nintendo and run its own circuit slash league But Nintendo was largely unresponsive They tried making meaningful contact with the company prepared decks to sell the idea But it couldn't go anywhere as Nintendo would not respond I think it's interesting to note that Nintendo was willing to have Splatoon on ESL This to me shows that Nintendo will support scenes that don't thrive on their own like Splatoon and arms But they won't touch Smash because they can hang back and reap the benefits that we create as a grassroots community Essentially letting us do all the work while doing nothing to help us get bigger MLG in 2015 MLG held an event with Melee and later with Smash 4 According to my source MLG did not continue working with Smash Melee after MLG Anaheim in 2015 Because Nintendo wanted to charge a fifty thousand dollar licensing fee per event Which is over double the asking rate for Street Fighter 4 a much more modern game at the time This practice to me seems like a way to effectively shut down Melee at MLG without directly preventing them from running it I would also assume that this fee would be charged and no real support would be provided by Nintendo As has been the case with some of our grassroots events There have been other incidents relating to MLG that have been spoken of publicly by former employees and insiders Such as the fact that Nintendo denied MLG the rights to stream brawl in 2010 That Nintendo denied USA from televising the Smash portion of their events in 2006 And the following call is from Sundance We of course know the Smash community is just as excited as we are to follow the tournament and see what makes their mark On the biggest stage in gaming and we're committed to doing everything we can to make our coverage of the tournament as comprehensive as possible However, I'm sorry to say that we will not be able to live stream for Smash in Orlando this weekend In order to stream something like this We have to secure live streaming rights from the game's publisher and despite our best efforts We have not been able to get permission from Nintendo Thus far we kept the conversation going all the way down to the wire in hopes that we get an 11th hour approval And could still stream the event, but unfortunately it didn't happen I know this is disappointing news and believe me, we don't like it either There's no way around it. A company of our size simply has to play by the rules I know a lot of you have seen local Smash tournaments streamed online And I probably wonder why we can't just do the same The answer is because we are a real company with real visibility and real things to lose We can't fly under the radar like a local tournament can Not that we would want to While the MOG era was a very long time ago The impact of those decisions hit the scene the most at a point where it was just starting to thrive And what effectively shut us down had it not been for our revival In 2013 due to the Evo slash the documentary Red Bull initially it was Red Bull, Twitch and Nintendo In talks it started a circuit similar to the Red Bull Proving Grounds for Smash A circuit where money tournaments would take place across cities in the U.S. And at the end of the season the top players from each locale would come to compete in a championship event Red Bull did much of the lay work to get it to launch And but it was Red Bull that was effectively cut from the conversation And the deal altogether Twitch Twitch and the later Remove Rebel Have been in negotiations with Nintendo to run a sanctioned circuit for Smash Including Smash 4 and Melee starting around 2015 Twitch was fronting their cost of this deal with a budget in the millions per year While Nintendo would own the league brand despite their lack of financial contribution During this time it seemed like Twitch was always close Only to have a conversation left without a response from Nintendo for months Thus delaying the process Eventually around early 2018 after three years of man hours and efforts to appease Nintendo The parties came to an agreement This wasn't just a verbal agreement or an agreement made in good faith It was a written contractual agreement meant to kick off the circuit For both Melee and Smash 4 This would have been the moment that legitimized Melee and Smash 4 as a major esport For years we had the viewership, the engagement, and the fanbase to say that we were a top esport But we lacked the official sanctioning from our developer Now after years of manpower, money, and stress in dealing with Nintendo We got a written agreement to start the circuit So what happened? Unbeknownst to anyone, Nintendo had plans to announce Smash Ultimate in 2018 Nintendo being a ghosting those working at Twitch Even after the agreement was made Then once Ultimate was announced, Nintendo came back to Twitch And effectively stated that the circuit no longer made sense with Ultimate in sight They told Twitch they wanted to see how the community responded to Ultimate And see if getting involved in esports was a way that would make sense for once the game was released Twitch was effectively told they'd have to wait again And that conversation maybe revived later in the year when Ultimate came out So another close call, another year of delay And no guarantee that they would make anything work once Ultimate was out It's been a while since Ultimate's release with no news in sight of a circuit As far as I've been made aware, those talks of a circuit are completely dead My personal comments on the entities above According to my source, the entities mentioned above every single one of them Have attempted to work with Nintendo while fronting all the costs In other words, they attempted to work with Nintendo without asking for a dime from them All they seek is permission This is not the normal practice Typically developers front some money themselves for a chance to run a circuit With companies like Red Bull and Twitch In this instance, we have Twitch and Red Bull willing to put down a lot of money To run a circuit and still hardly anything comes from Nintendo Another thing to note is that people who have put years and countless hours into making this work With Nintendo also worked on making circuits happen for Tekken Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter Circuits for those games came to fruition within months The negotiations were much simpler, yet with Nintendo and Smash The process has taken over five years in counting At a certain point, it becomes clear that Nintendo doesn't want Smash eSports to happen But they allow people to think it will If you allow me, I'd like to give my personal thoughts on what this all means Nintendo knows there's a benefit in keeping the scene hopeful While never shutting us down completely Think about it If Nintendo really had such a problem with Smash eSports, they could shut it down Likewise, if Nintendo really wanted us to succeed They could just apply their incredible resources to make it happen I have some thoughts on why we get neither outcome and why Nintendo Remains conveniently uncommitted to either scenario Shutting us down completely would be very bad publicly At this point, we as a community have a voice to influence the actions of major corporations Including Nintendo It's a marvel of the internet They famously reversed their reprehensible decision to shut down Melee stream At EVO 2013 after we raised close to $100,000 to fight breast cancer We caused a ruckus on the internet And five hours later, we were back on stream at EVO The effects of that moment ring out today We're way bigger now And they know how loud our voices are Perhaps that is exactly why they only dip their toes and pretend to help the scene Maybe they don't want to help us grow and get louder Maybe they don't want to spend money on eSports thing Maybe they think competitive Smash differs from their vision for the game Fine, however, while all that might be true They simultaneously do want our voices to give them marketing A whole lot of free marketing It makes sense when I think about it They're always feigning support Never really bribing it And never really stopping us either And you might believe that Nintendo doesn't really need our community to sell games That's probably correct However, does it benefit them? That we exist? Does it benefit them to allow us to exist as we do? Oh, God, yes I think it's very clear that Nintendo benefits from the influencers That the eSports community has created Hell, Nintendo has even used these influencers For their invitationals at E3 to help promote the game Look at it this way Imagine a world where Smash eSports wasn't a thing And Nintendo released a direct You'd probably have quite a few people watching on their competitors On their computers in the privacy of their homes And when it's done, just shut down and move on with their day What we have instead are the very same people replying to eSams tweet Sharing Leffen's video Playing Hbox's reaction on repeat You get hundreds of millions of impressions from fans of these influencers Spreading news of the game everywhere It doesn't take an advertising genius to understand the power of influencer marketing And Nintendo is getting it not just for free But while actively suppressing our scene from getting larger And I think that's awful Honestly, I find myself echoing a lot of the same things That this anonymous person has done and has said Because Nintendo clearly benefits from influencers They benefit from me They benefit from Swamway They benefit from beat-em-ups They benefit from GameXplain And they benefit from people in the eSports scene playing their games Because as those eSports people get big followers Like Leffen and Hbox Like when they get these followers It leads to them having influence over sales of games That's what happens This is why celebrities are used to sell products This is why certain celebrities of a certain stature Even if they're not The lead in a movie will be put on the cover art for the movie Because they know that will make people want to go see the movie Or go see the show Like this is commonly known That once someone becomes popular They have a certain influence in the market That can help sales And Nintendo has actively taken advantage of that fact And used these people to promote Smash Bros at various events I mean, remember Hungrybox faced off against freaking Reggie Fisame On stage, live streamed on Nintendo's official channels Like Nintendo is using the Smash community To promote their games But showing zero support back Not only are they not supporting them monetarily They're not even being asked to do that They're just being asked to say, hey, let us actually play the game In an official capacity on a live stream at an event That is being backed by other sponsors that are willing to front the money Twitch and Rebel willing to front millions of dollars to support An actual cash, you know, Smash community And Nintendo's like, eh, well, we said you could But you know what, we also knew at the time that we approved this We had another game coming And we weren't really going to go through on this contract Granted, Twitch and Rebel could have held Nintendo over the colds Like Philips did back in the day When Nintendo backed over the Philips deal But they had a contract So they still made the Mario Hotel game They still made the 3 Zelda CDi games So Twitch and Rebel could have gone forward Or really, I guess just Twitch at that point when the contract was signed And still ran that circuit But it definitely would have been a little strange To run that circuit at the time that a brand new Smash game was coming out Obviously, you know, they just got a signed contract from Nintendo And then Nintendo said, hey, let's wait and see how ultimate does Maybe they actually thought in good faith that Nintendo actually was going to amend the contract To include ultimate And then they could literally do a massive ultimate circuit All across the United States or even worldwide And in fact, it's curious that Nintendo knew that game was coming And didn't actually throw it in the original contract And use it as a point to launch Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018 Because they could have had a worldwide circuit happening for that game Before the game even released Like they did for the Invitational at E3 Do you see the things lining up and adding up your work? Nintendo is basically benefiting from the existence of a Smash community That they kind of wish wasn't around way back in the day And now that they're benefiting more and more from that community Today than they ever have Nintendo is still unwilling to give the community the bare basic rights to exist They're like, oh, we're going to tease you that you can exist officially But yeah, you know what? We're not going to allow it to happen Which prevents professional Smash players from being able to earn a living Like they, like other eSports players do Because believe it or not, folks, eSports Whether you like eSports or not Takes a high amount of skill Takes a ton of time Lots of practice just like any other sport does That's why it's called an eSport Because it actually is extremely time consuming Lots of sleepless nights Weird sleep schedules Hard to find sponsors And then when you find sponsors Sometimes you end up in these team house situations That aren't necessarily ideal There's a lot of crazy stuff that happens with this stuff But the Smash community is kind of left with just these local smaller tournaments Oh, we got Evo But then like Nintendo rips away the streaming rights in the middle of Evo Only for fan backlash to give it back Like it's just Nintendo I don't know what you're doing You either need to You basically need to make one of two decisions, Nintendo You either need to say We're done We don't want competitive Smash to exist We're over it I mean, Sakurai has famously put out their way in the past That he didn't care about the competitive scene But now he's kind of come around And now you see him talk about the competitive scene When he announces new characters So Sakurai is aware of the competitive scene And he's not shunning it So my thing is Nintendo, you may have to make one of two decisions You're either just going to announce That you don't want this to exist You're never going to give rights And just kill it right there Just kill the Smash community right there Which again, you might not want to do Because then that ruins the sales ability Of some of the celebrities in the Smash community The other thing is Support the Smash community fully Sponsor events Get involved in the circuits Like every other developer and publisher is And go with it I think the reason that some people are going to bring up And I can already see you click clacking down on the comments below Is, well, why would Nintendo want to do that? Haven't you heard about all of the allegations Made against certain Smash rules players Dealing with their fans In particular, going after fans that are younger And not of age And some of the accusations being made there Of course But see, this happens in every sport It happens in the NFL Happens in the NBA And unfortunately it happens in esports as well And it happens not just in the Smash community Happens in all of the communities I don't think we could take those accusations that are, you know Not aren't that old at this point And say that this applies to the whole of the Smash community It represents people that are bad people All right, that happens There are bad people everywhere In every profession It doesn't mean that we should just get rid of the profession Because of the bad actors No, you eject the bad actors Make people aware that you're no longer accepting this behavior No one's going to hide this behavior anymore You make people be brave, you can come forward And you move on And you start to promote the people that aren't the bad actors Right, that's how you end up moving on as a community Nintendo doesn't need to distance themselves From the Smash community Because there's been some incidents Guess what? There's been incidents at Nintendo themselves In fact, they got rid of an employee in particular Because of some potential extracurricular activities That were happening in their life Like, this is beyond reproach I'm sorry, Nintendo All right People always talk about, oh, you're that Nintendo guy You know, I criticize the hell out of Nintendo And I'm criticizing them right now Get your shit together, Nintendo I'm serious I don't even care about competitor Smash I don't I have no interest in this I'm not even a fighting game fan But reality is, I feel for the people in this community Being yanked around by Nintendo Acting like they're actually going to support you And then never combing through with it And then, oh, hey, by the way Why don't you come and come to our events And, I mean, how... You can say, well, just don't tell Nintendo You're not going to come to your events But then that makes the community less relevant So, of course, you're going to go to the events Of course, you're going to enjoy the Nintendo VIP treatment Because why wouldn't you? But that's not what the Smash community really wants They want you to just okay these people To run actual tournaments for cash, prizes And advertise these tournaments And stream these tournaments The Smash community, let me put it this way Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Is the most popular selling fighting game of all time And it's not even close Over 20 million in sales This is the potential to be the largest esport game In the world This could take out things like League of Legends Heck, Candy Crush In case you didn't know that This is a very popular esport Especially in the Asian countries It could take out that Super Smash Bros. has a chance to take Fighting game esports to a level It has never seen because fighting games Aren't typically that popular But Smash is Smash Ultimate Officially sponsored tournaments Could just destroy the esports market And run it and set everything Set the standards for everything But Nintendo just won't let it happen Every step of the way they tease you And then roadblock you It's kind of like Nintendo Is some chick or whatever You know your significant other That or whatever that you're interested in And they keep teasing you They keep teasing you Oh man, you're like Oh, let me brush up against you Let me touch you Let me flirt with you But it's just a tease It's just a tease And then the same tease from Nintendo They drop their own cock block Right in front of it I know, really bad analogy I don't care I think it's ridiculous Nintendo, get your shit together Do something one way or another Either tell the community That you don't want them to exist And be done with it Or, or actually support the community This teeter tottering both ways Reaping the benefits While not supporting the community But then telling the community You're going to support it Needs the end I'm sorry We need, needs the end You can't have it both ways You can't have your cake and eat it too And we've allowed them to have their cake And eat it too for too long The Nintendo fan community Whether you like the eSports community Or not needs to stand up And start demanding Nintendo Do something about this Because right now The Smash community on its own The Smash eSports community on its own Has unsuccessfully gotten Nintendo To do anything So now we need the Nintendo community At large to take notice Alright folks I'll put a link to this tweet A link to a thread over on Reset Error About it Any other links I can find To people that are relevant That can maybe help get your voices heard I'm not going to start a petition myself Other people can worry about petitions I don't know how well those really work But thank you guys so much for tuning in I am Nintendo RoboJence from NintendoPribe Wearing a dang fan made Nintendo Fan made Smash Bros shirt Yeah, I expect to get a cease and desist For this video too Catch you guys in the next video