“Nintendo shooting itself in the foot”: Outcry as The Big House is shutdown

There’s some bad news for the Smash Bros. community. The Big House Smash tournament is cancelled. A cease and desist order by Nintendo itself resulted in the long running tournament to shut.

Everyone in the Smash Bros. community is aware of the Big House tournaments. It is usually held in July every year but because of the pandemic, this year’s edition was pushed ahead. Started in Michigan back in 2011 every year the tournaments have run their course without any issues from Nintendo or anyone else.

However just weeks before this edition, the tournament was cancelled at the behest of Nintendo. Naturally fans and pros are very upset at this decision.

The reason why Big House is cancelled –

Due to the current pandemic and citing safety reasons this year’s Big House tournament was pushed ahead. The organizers announced it would be held online and the dates were December 4-6th.

They would use a netcode called ‘Slippi’. Although unapproved officially it allows players to compete online. Nintendo cited the use of Slippi and contacted the organizers to stop. After their refusal a Cease and Desist order was issued and the tournament was cancelled.

 Fans and Pros react to the news –

In a tweet Big House broke the news. Nintendo is facing the ire since then of the fans. Fans took to twitter and other social media channels to blame the gaming firm. They were soon joined by the pros. The top 3 melee players MangO, Hbox and Armada in a series of tweets addressed the issue.

Popular player Leffen of Team SoloMid also blamed Nintendo and said that Nintendo was “shooting itself in the foot.” This was not the first time Nintendo is acting this way with their handling of tournaments. Back in 2013 a tournament at EVO2013 was also blocked.

Apart from a statement to the Polygon, Nintendo are yet to respond to the cancellation and as things stand there might not be a Big House this year.