In December, a major tournament for the classic Super Smash Bros. Melee was supposed to take place. However, Nintendo put a stop to it – much to the dismay of many fans.
Which game is it about? Super Smash Bros. Melee is already 19 years old and has popular successors like Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Yet, the great GameCube game still has a huge following and continues to be played in tournaments.
A tournament was also supposed to take place in December. The tournament series “The Big House” has been running since 2011 with annual events and focuses on several installments of the series – including Melee. This year, the normally in-person event was supposed to be held online for the first time due to the pandemic. It was to feature singles matches in Melee and Ultimate – but Nintendo put a stop to the plan.
Why is the tournament banned?
Here’s the reason: As the organizers explain on their homepage, they received a cease and desist letter from Nintendo of America. “We were informed that we do not have permission to host and stream the event, especially due to the use of Slippi. Unfortunately, all our competitions are affected,” it says (via umsmash.com).
What is Slippi? Slippi is a fan-created tool that equips the old GameCube title with several online features. But here lies the main problem: In a statement to “Kotaku”, Nintendo explained the situation as follows. They appreciate the love of the “Fighting Game Community” for the Smash Bros. series, but:
“In the past, we have collaborated with numerous Super Smash Bros. tournaments and hosted our own online and offline tournaments for this game, and we plan to continue this support in the future,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, the upcoming Big House tournament announced that it would host an online tournament for Super Smash Bros. Melee, which would require the use of illegally copied versions of the game in conjunction with a mod called ‘Slippi’ during the online event” (via Kotaku).
The software was not authorized by Nintendo, which is why they contacted the organizers and requested that they refrain from doing so: “They refused and left Nintendo with no choice but to intervene to protect its intellectual property and its brand. Nintendo cannot silently tolerate or allow the piracy of its intellectual property,” the statement continues.
How the community reacts: The ban has sparked some discussions. On reddit, for example, there is a large post with over 18,000 upvotes and 1,600 comments discussing the matter, and the topic trended on Twitter under #FreeMelee. Many players are upset about Nintendo’s ban, especially given the current pandemic situation. There is also a petition with about 10,700 supporters on Change.org, stating: “We can only show Nintendo that we care. If we can get enough people to speak up, maybe they will listen” (via change.org).
Furthermore, there is criticism that all the effort that went into the tournament and the Slippi emulator is being stopped in this way. One of the Slippi developers, Jas “Fizzi36” Laferriere, also spoke out via Twitter and expressed disappointment that Nintendo restricts opportunities to “get through these difficult times”.
While there are also comments siding with Nintendo in this case, a large majority of commenters cannot understand the decision.
Melee seems to have a very large fanbase even after many, many years since its release. This is only partially surprising: Even today, the Smash Bros. installments often rank among the favorites on their respective Nintendo platform. Smash Bros. Ultimate, for example, was among the three most popular games on the Switch.
