How VGBC Ruined The Smash Community

[@Technicals]

Amazing work franchise! I can’t wait to steal it

[@queuedjar4578]

Despite making up 13% of the youtube population, Tech steals 90% of the video ideas from thefranChise.

[@CCXZBlur]

Wow tech after Franchise gave a small KZbinr like you a shot how COULD you :(((

[@uiripriest298]

LMAO

[@ABC-ik9vj]

What a manchild

[@QenaitheCustodianGuard]

I love how everyone glanced over the fact you where banned from the event, haha.

[@casualjose7619]

Something to add to Double Down: Hungrybox was coughing up blood on the morning of the event and had to go to the hospital for care. He still decided to attend the tournament with no mask on and the TOs did absolutely nothing in this situation to stop him. It was only after community backlash that Hungrybox dropped out of the tournament and issued an apology. I don't think VGBC made any statement on this incident.

[@mds_main]

Exactly, this comment needs to be seen by more people as well.

[@IPromiseTomorrow]

Holy wat. He's supposed to be the cleanest of them all.

[@moody7063]

@@IPromiseTomorrow i guess being cleanest of a group of smashers isn't helping the stereotype?

[@Yoshixandir]

Gross for real. If he didn’t get the backlash he would’ve gone

[@RTU130]

Hmm

[@shrekstacy]

its crazy to see this discourse coming up again and see people still spew the same uninformed perspectives and not acknowledge how VGBC is clearly at fault here. If for any other reason than how irresponsible it was to allow all their attendees to sign up, book flights and accomodations for an event that they weren't sure would be able to happen.

[@banditoftheeast7488]

It's like what Emp Lemon said, the problems within the smash community are in the hands of people least likely to do anything about it.

[@queuedjar4578]

It's really weird that EmpLemon's pre pandemic video ended up basically being a foreshadowing of further things to come. I used to think it was only a good video for its time, but it has basically become indicative and prophetic of the smash community as a whole. He really saw the writing on the wall all the way back then.

[@NateHatak]

​@@queuedjar4578 Which of his videos was this?

[@queuedjar4578]

@@NateHatak There will Never Ever be another Melee Player like Hungrybox

[@NrettG]

@@queuedjar4578 I felt like I had whiplash rewatching that documentary recently. I loved it at the time because of it's presentation but I honestly thought he had found a way to re edit and add new sections to an already published video upon rewatch.

[@Fredfazbear1983]

Too bad emplemon decided to run with “smash community does nothing wrong” just to own Nintendo

[@gohan7926]

Saying Dc. Alan “lacks rizz” is easily the best way to describe this entire situation

[@yungmuney5903]

I swear "rizz" is gonna be a new trendy slang like "simp".

[@GSEleven]

@@yungmuney5903 It already is.

[@BigTaxiNY]

I'm old is rizz like clout

[@jacksongraham2212]

@@BigTaxiNY It’s like charisma.

[@GSEleven]

@@BigTaxiNY Nah it's more like drip, but refers to attraction more than clothing style.

[@leoscarvi]

I remember when all the internet was just destroying Panda, the TOs of l'Odyssée (french smash major) were saying that SWT being unlicensed by Nintendo was the main issue "How can you make a smash world tour with hundreds of tournaments and just not wait for the company to grant a license ? " They were really shocked about that ! Thank you for bringing up all these informations this clearly. Because when you are not actually travelling to these tournaments you cannot see the security issues that were on VGBC's events and can be misinformed. I hope you won't get any hate for this video and you will continue to make the smash scene a better place

[@kyurei4478]

Sadly the french community and maybe the rest of Europe I think (not certain but they usually follow the french community's view) usually just follows and adopts the general american Smash community's opinion on the Smash affairs, just because many don't even understand english well enough to make their own researches and this is America related stuff so they're very exterior to all of this and don't know the american community in detail. I'd like they could just question things by themselves more instead of blindly following what seems to be right because the majority in America agreed on it. Actually you can apply this to every scale. The same happens to people who directly blindly trust what people in the community say online without questionning anything instead of waiting to have more informations. We can't just trust what people say only because it's easier cause there is always a risk they're not honest or they simply only have one side of the story. People absolutely need to stop being so impulsive and to think more. It's always the same reason again and again and it creates unecessary problems.

[@leoscarvi]

@@kyurei4478 You are right, the Europe tends to follow what happen in America. But the French community is starting to be really big in size, the number of tournaments is increasing just like the player base. And the other European contries are also starting to be massive. I hope the European scene will one day be so big that dramas occuring in the US will not affect the European scene this much. But currently there are not enough good results in american major by europeans to be taken seriously and we are still the weakest region compared to Japan and NA

[@kyurei4478]

@@leoscarvi I'd prefer it but it won't happen anytime soon I think because America as always been the main scene. Unless Europe becomes the central point for the Smash scene but things are very different in Europe, big names invest in e sport nowadays but e sport isn't as socially accepted as it is in America yet. Not as big of a business in Europe too yet. The mentality is a bit more old school even though it's changing apparently. What I was trying to explain is that, even Europe seems to follow France sometimes because it's the most important European scene. No matter the scale the community always tends to not question things and just follow the opinion of the more important scene. When a side of the community is exterior to the drama it's harder to judge without as much context as the people who live in the country. But still, they shouldn't just automatically agree with the general opinion of America if they have less informations or they personally disagree for example. It's a bit more complex than just a level issue. Although I have to say if Europe was the main scene, it would make things easier geographically for tournaments cause Europe really is in the center of everything. It's simpler for Japan, simpler for Australia, obviously simpler for the whole Europe. It would be a bit more complicated for US but less for the rest of the entire world basically.

[@lisreal2007]

Ludwig and Charlie need to see this, they were two of the people the most vocally outspoken of Panda

[@ShaunInce123]

They should, but they won't. They would just brush it off.

[@Butitdo910]

Really sucks when they subject their huge audiences to their opinion on a subject they just learned about 30 mins before going on camera….

[@MastaFrank01]

This is why people need to stop watching their videos. All Charlie does now days is post youtube drama videos in the most lazy and half assed mannor. He posts more stupid drama and comment videos than his even lazier twitch clips. After being subbed to him from the very early days I finally just unsubbed because i got sick of the stentch of his shit videos.

[@mikejonesnoreally]

@@Butitdo910 If they're that under educated (An' they're smashers so of course they ARE.) they *deserve* to be misinformed. :3

[@djerk2138]

This is exactly why charlie and ludwig r just bad. This whole situation has damaged the smash community beyond repair.

[@PreacherJenkins]

I FUCKING KNEW IT WAS ESAM IM BOUTTA TAKE THAT BOY TO BOXING RING

[@itskalstor9076]

Imagine giving Nintendo the shortest month of the year to accept your application for partnership

[@andaroth96fw71]

You know something I haven't seen anyone address or mention is how Alan wanted to work with Beyond the Summit and told them that at their current pace bad things would happen close to March and now BTS informs that they are shutting down due to lack of profitability and funds. Alan literally tried to save the smash community but had no "rizz" to pass all the charisma checks needed.

[@herolink17]

Ya know that really is something else, its unreal how bad I feel for Dr. Alan.

[@skapenguin]

Dr Alan made a comment that he operated with the mindset that SWT knew they were going to get shut down. Everyone was saying that Alan was threatening them, but it looks like VGBC was withholding that info from TOs.

[@crescentryoshi3717]

Even that is questionable, it sounds like these people hear "work with Nintendo" and they start foaming at the mouth from rage.

[@heterodoxagnostic8070]

sadge

[@陳嘉宇-y4q]

I don't know whether Alan is right or wrong anymore, everything he said now came true naturally

[@michaelcottrello]

The craziest part is that most people like Ludwig, Critical etc just took everything at face value. Nintendo has a history of being litigious so we just believed that this grass roots org could afford to host a quarter mil tourney with a grand total of one sponsor locked in. Hell I’d bet some of the Metafy money was contingent upon Nintendo licensing the event

[@shuikai272]

That's the thing, KZbin news is not really held to the same standards, nobody is checking sources, gathering evidence, etc. All about entertainment.

[@gamingmoyai3950]

@@shuikai272 mainstream media is the same way. Almost as if the only person you can trust for correct information is yourself nowadays.

[@anonymousapproximation8549]

@@shuikai272 You say this like the usual news sources aren't the exact same way. 💀

[@shuikai272]

@@anonymousapproximation8549 mainstream news is fake politically but they don't accuse people of criminal activity as often as like a KZbinr. They wouldn't tell everybody Alan is a Boogie man and to boycott the company lol.

[@BurstingBushidox]

Nintendo was never going to give swt a license and swt knew it, those guys built the scene and they weren't going to let panda swoop in and take it out from under them. If they couldn't have it then no one could. It grew in the grass and it's going to stay in the grass

[@perriwinkleiii5361]

I swear, going back and reading the statements that came out right as it happened just screams VGBC dropping the ball, jumping the gun and misunderstanding their communications with Nintendo. The fact they ran so hard on an anti-Panda platform with as few facts as they did, shifting blame without acknowledging their own shoddy handling of the backroom dealings, is proof of a poorly-run operation.

[@hardondong3550]

Not enough people know about this videos existence and that's sad

[@LHSMeleeClub]

lolrite? i came back to see how popular this vid was/is and its only sitting at 31k smhhh

[@sharpywilliam4513]

The worst part is how almost the whole community ganged up on the only company that was ever so close to give us the proper smash circuit, and they just moved on like nothing happened afterwards. It's also a shame videos like these will probably also be brushed off and ignored. This video was super well made and very enlightning, good job I will def be sharing it. Also the Esam jokes will never not be funny lmao.

[@defectivesickle5643]

I think the people with half a brain in the community were rightfully able to disregard the people who were ravaging the entire company, and especially the players. I don't think it's right to say that the players killed Panda, as someone who was there when it happened, just that it's kinda hard to stay upright when your CEO spontaneously combusts.

[@KazeShikamaru]

I find it interesting how you and others are pretty much okay with a monopoly on Smash events.

[@gairisiuil]

@@KazeShikamaru it wasn't really a monopoly, there were plenty of other events not on panda's circuit that were licensed

[@ZawaOnYoutube]

​@@gairisiuil which ones??

[@psychokinrazalon]

@@ZawaOnKZbinThey were listed in the video.

[@LHSMeleeClub]

You also could have mentioned the sad reality that not only did VGBC kill Panda by using the community backlash as a vector, but they literally got rewarded for it too by Ludwig for helping them by fundraising all of that money for them with scuffed world tour event after the SWT cancellation SMHHH...

[@LHSMeleeClub]

Meanwhile Alan gets doxxed and his family has to go into hiding because of death threats... Absolutely absurd situation that nobody is talking about nearly enough as they should be.

[@lukethekuya]

They all deserve the woodchipper

[@ZawaOnYoutube]

Yeah but fuck Panda

[@Brain-washed2]

really well put together, makes sense that there's way more to the story than what everybody first hears. a common theme in the smash "community" when bombs start dropping.

[@georget4141]

everything is more “suspicious” when people start throwing around random “quotation” marks

[@Brain-washed2]

@@georget4141 I put quotes on “community” bc 1. Extremely over and misused word in the past 7-8 years. That’s right around when everybody started calling everything a community. Smash wasn’t really calling themselves that before. 2. For a so called community, they really love attacking themselves. Idk where you got “suspicious” from

[@georget4141]

@@Brain-washed2 the smash community is very definitely a community in the most basic sense and has been for over 20 years, you don’t get a game like melee to survive like this without a very dedicated central community and hundreds of close knit grassroots local communities as well. also, word definitions change. the word community is a very specific and accurate meaning in this case, and to call smash player base a collection of people or whatever is to ignore the cooperation and shared experience that glue the scene together

[@leaffinite2001]

​@George T hes not trynna make it seem suspicious, hes calling into doubt the validity of the term community.

[@georget4141]

@@leaffinite2001 it’s a community. one video criticizing people’s reaction and now the hot take is that the smash communitys not even a community, that’s ridiculous

[@daxmoney5011]

Imagine losing 2 circuits and a whole ass org because one person couldn’t hire good security smh

[@rakanelafrangi161]

"10 dollars can't be compared to 10 lives" God damn

[@VorileBemx]

What also baffles me is that Nintendo clearly wanted to help their competitive scenes grow but the smash scene is by far the most obnoxious and it's thanks to the people at the top of smash's community organizations. If Nintendo really didn't care about the competitive scenes of their games, then why is it that Nintendo is running Mario kart events and splatoon events without any issue? Heck the communities of those events actually are grateful and even praised Nintendo for being able to help support those events. It's so crazy that the community complains so much about Nintendo not wanting to sponsor them but when Nintendo finally does with their own circuit thanks to panda, they now decided to sabotage it because of one company who is on the top of the smash scene thinking they have all the power and smash should be revolved around them and when they go against Nintendo agreement protocols, they decided to frame it as them being the victims instead.

[@lotgxj9]

Its way more complicated than that Nintendo has done a lot of negative things

[@sammydray5919]

​@@lotgxj9 In the past maybe, but this time the fault lies ENTIRELY with the community for messing this up for everyone.

[@LarcassVevo]

i meant to say Low Tide Cities at 21:12 my fault

[@howisthis8849]

Low Tier City? is that where LTG lives?

[@HBTLions]

@@howisthis8849 lol

[@lisreal2007]

I've been saying this since it happened. The boycotting of the Panda cup was one of the worst decisions this community ever made. We not only lost a circuit, we lost a highly supportive esports org, and any little bit of faith Nintendo had in working with us ever again.

[@LHSMeleeClub]

Your comment is well written and cannot be understated for it is so tragically true... and the fact that people are not talking about this is absurd. And now BTS is dead... where do we go from here?

[@Billymaysx]

It is THE worst decision the community ever made. But it should be said that it just shows how spineless some of the top players are. iBDW and Leffen are completely insufferable, Hungrybox is fake as fuck, and Mang0 is being held by the balls by his crazy girlfriend Lauren.

[@lukethekuya]

The Smash community destroys itself from within.

[@cvlcek144]

Can't say I disagree. Alan being gone I was ok with. But not the company as a whole. The company itself actually does still exist. But is a skeleton crew now. And would take years to repair itself if even possible at this point.

[@kyurei4478]

I think it's fine for Nintendo though. I don't think the case had a real impact on their trust. They weren't that much involved in the case directly although obviously they're still the main reason things were problematic. What really tarnished Nintendo's trust is rather all these cases of pedophilia that have arisen before. And then we are surprised that Nintendo asks to have a certain level of safety. Honestly, I'm even surprised that after all of this they still agreed to partner with Panda. And then we will dare to say that Nintendo is totally against the community. A bit of honesty please. I'm really happy that Panda was at least able to prove to us that a partnership with Nintendo is still possible after that. So we must continue to bring more professionalism and control in the Smash community and especially at VGBC if one day we want to see this partnership finally become a reality for everyone without problems.

[@ModemMT]

this shit just really makes me hate the community. Every time something like this happens it feels like the wrong people are always the ones taking the blame

[@Akari_A_]

The community hasn't learned anything.

[@59hawks]

​@@Akari_A_ how can you expect them to. The community wants to be taken seriously, yet they don't want to move on from its grassroots status. they don't want the leaders and prominent figures in the community to take accountability they want to play victim and pass the blame. It is only when everything bottles up and swarms of Alleations come out when the community suddenly cares, until they let all the problems back in because they still play a sick game. And then wonder why they are treated like a joke by the fgc, and they have the hardest time getting actual support

[@MTEllipsis]

​@@59hawks honestly i think it doesn't know how to be anything else after being grassrots for so long... and the smash community as a whole is more like lots of smaller grassroots communities duct taped together than a big community...

[@matchasgotcha]

Glad you're dropping this video after so much of the community chose to blindly listen to VGBootcamp and Beyond the Summit. In a community rampant with bandwagoning and favouritism, your videos addressing the Smash scene's serious problems are a breath of fresh air 👏

[@kaiserauthoria]

LMAO technicals does the same shit and gets hated for it. Lmqo

[@matchasgotcha]

@@kaiserauthoriaAnd I don't hate him. He plays the heel in the community and makes good points that most Smash community members can't accept

[@shadownite3378]

@@kaiserauthoria I have my issues and disagreements with Technicals but what matters is that he does real actual journalism on the subject material and doesnt put out misinfo. He has his biases for sure, but he tries to stay objective and I respect that about him

[@allisthemoist2244]

To be fair. I think I'm the only person I saw before this video defending panda and Alan

[@swagcat51]

the community reacted based off of the information they had.. this was terrible communication on all fronts so no shit this happened

[@ShaunInce123]

I bet the Smash community is hoping Moist Critikal & Ludwig can bail them out.

[@queuedjar4578]

I can't believe the smash community has basically been reduced to bums. Eventually poor Ludwig and Charlie are going to be abused enough by the manchildren of smash as well when they dry up those wells.

[@NrettG]

I mean he's just putting his foot in every door open, if it helps the team and get's them more publicity then it all works out for them. Of course I could easily see this all crashing down if they aren't too careful. Smash Bros will never go away (because come on) but the venues and the sponsors attached can easily get thrown overboard. I think they need to start looking to the wind and see where the ship is headed before correcting course if they decide to.

[@albertwesker4729]

And screw up

[@arbalest327]

@@albertwesker4729 then they get exposed for being being stupid and ignoring the real problems

[@jonmiller8430]

the smash community being willing to take btssmash and vgbc’s words at face value given their history is astounding. this community deserves everything they have coming to them.

[@Mexidorf]

It's a damn shame seeing how the community has turned out since I was attending Brawl locals back in 2009. The average Smash player has the attention span of a squirrel so they'll just ignore all the facts laid bare because "bald man god" & "geeMZ alWAyZZ WinZZZ!!1!11" On a tongue-in-cheek note, the sexual harassment controversy in Smash began because the incident that brought the issue to the forefront HAPPENED AT A VGBC LOCAL

[@N12015]

Why can't I be surprised about this? This is the kind of reason they demand security.

[@Akari_A_]

So... VGBC killed SWT because they couldn't get a license AND they killed Panda Global because it was "their" fault they couldn't get a license. Amazing. Simply amazing.

[@adomomcjinkies4787]

Sooo this whole entire thing is gimrs fault as well as being an attention whore if one thing doesn't go their way?

[@itsyaboi1245]

This is just completely false wtf

[@tehkorenbomber]

Not exactly killed but more like pointed the finger at panda and the community attacked

[@BrutalHips]

​@@itsyaboi1245elaborate

[@L0N3W0LF715]

Honestly feels like GimR is hiding behind the shield that he's done a lot of good for the community to cloak and dagger his way out of hold any accountability whatsoever. Worst part is, is that it worked.

[@zod4365]

Thank you for this! I'm sick of these "influencers" blaming Nintendo when it's the issues that are within the Smash Community. From crabs in a barrel mentality, "Chester's," and just plain foolish behavior. Then you have cowards that claim to be "bullies," but people blow up their DMs they immediately turn their back on their sponsor (Punk). Unfortunately, even with this and just common sense, Max and hundreds of other's, won't apologize or even acknowledge wrongdoing.

[@hunbi1875]

Yeah, Nintendo is an easy scapegoat that the community uses so often.

[@tempo9641]

I was so confused when all this was happening and it did feel like some truth was missing all around. Glad you made this video to really clarify everything. All I could tell at first was Nintendo was just being terrible again, but sad to see VGBC really wasn’t being straight up. Hope things get better in the future.. hope this gets way more views and attention in the broad Smash community

[@heyhackurs]

I had skepticism immediately knowing VGBC's track record and how they handled Project M

[@jebril]

Been watching since your Leffen video and I gotta say this is your best video by far. Especially when the narrative was even more controlled than in the Leffen situation so much so that I haven't seen a single person argue this perspective until now and its an extremely logical one that should be heard because this very likely put a nail in the coffin for Smash sponsored events especially Melee ones. I actually like GIMR and do think he's done a lot of good for the community but this was one obviously huge collosal fuck up that he successfully shifted blame for and instead of his organization going under it was a much more lucrative one in Panda instead. RIP Panda, they actually were doing a ton of good for the Smash scene with the players they sponsored, the events and licensing they were pushing along with Nintendo which had never happened before. I think the reason why a lot of the community had a negative opinion of Panda almost immediately was because one we had seen Nintendo screw us multiple times and two Pandas controller kickstarter that was abruptly canceled along with their relationship with Nintendo made it hard to trust them. That and all the influential voices telling people what to think. Which came from players, TOs, BTS, and KZbin influencers none of it helped paint a clear a picture with removed bias to allow people to reach a different conclusion such as this one. So again thank you for this video and like I said best video you've ever made not only in production quality but the importance of its message IMO. Also thank you for the non antagonistic approach to this video, it makes it harder for naysayers to say you're just a troll or something like they did with Technicals to discredit him and his arguments.

[@Mexidorf]

Not just that, but now the entire Smash community is heavily viewed in a worse light than before since Panda's FGC roster was also a casualty. The disconnect/distrust between both scenes is significantly worse now.

[@LHSMeleeClub]

At this point franchise is good cop and Tech is bad cop lol

[@ramofarahs1]

F

[@psychokinrazalon]

@@LHSMeleeClubPretty much.

[@Marz776]

they cancelled the Panda tour because they didn't want them to succeed where they failed, it's a really tragic story

[@TheMexicanVaquero]

Glad to see you bringing this up. When VGBootcamp first came out with all this I thought it was obvious that the SWT didn’t get a license cause they kept announcing stuff before getting approval. Really surprised no one brought it up. But at the end of the day one has been with the community for years and panda global was still relatively new in that realm so it’s easy to get the masses in their side.

[@ByoKora775]

Yep Esam is definitely to blame for this freaking Dr. Eggman in disguise

[@thetreehousefactory]

So you're telling me that Panda's destruction was sour grapes because SWT continuously fucked up their own licensing? Wow, that is incredible. When this was all happening, I was told that Alan was trying to get rid of the grassroots tourneys. Jesus, this is why the rest of the FGC hates the smash community

[@N12015]

And SOMEHOW Nintendo is the good guy in here. Like seriously, *WHO WOULD WANT to get involved with the Smash community?* A LOT of the worst incidents on E-Sport's history came precisely because of us. Also, let's not pretend E-Sports is very profitable of a market, because it isn't, is a net loss for the main company who is mostly done to gain better reputation... except you don't want to be associated with Smash players.

[@leaffinite2001]

I mean lets not pretend this is why fgc fans hate smash. They will tell you outright its cuz its a kids game

[@mehgamer467]

​@Leaf Finite some are chill with melee. There are other reasons lol. This is one of them.

[@NrettG]

@@mehgamer467 To add to it, I don't have a problem with Smash Bros or the games at all. It's just the crowds it brings, I so desperately just want to have them under the FGC because it just means more people to hang out with, it's a sign of respect and just being under one roof; yet there's a reason it's always FGC + Smash.

[@RyanTarney]

This honestly takes a lot of guts to research and produce. I remember when the news was first being dropped, if you even tried to push 10% of the blame away from Panda, you'd be criticized. It does stem from the fact that Nintendo has shut down a lot of events in the past so it wasn't hard to believe they were the villains and anyone working with them was bad by association. But sometimes there is more to the truth.

[@Landmasters]

Naaaah, the Smash Community being vindictive little pricks and setting double standards, never heard of it -Westballz getting cancelled off false information provided by a pathological liar, a psycho who tried to stab her best friend, and dogpiling from other big name players -DaShizWiz reforming himself to play again after run ins with the law, only to get cancelled again because his religious faith doesn't acknowledge transgender ideology -Hax's entire saga trying (emphasis) to bring attention to an abuser and being cancelled while the abuser rewrote history to erase these facts -ZeRo being falsely accused by several abusers and them not receiving any sort of punishment or ban -Mew2King being put under the microscope due to a false accusation that was spread by abusers, forcing him to come on camera and admit he couldn't do the act because of a fatal mistake in an operation regarding his genitals -Hugs immediately throwing a friend of his under the bus with no consideration, yet backing a known liar that spreads false information -Slime admitting to being asked to go radio silent due to inconvenient information that might prove one of his online friends to be a liar and abuser -Sky Williams being painted as encouraging abuse/sexual assault and being unable to find work, only to get vindicated later with no apologies -Hungrybox getting harassed due to checking his watch and if he could make his plane due to a scheduling error at Smashcon 2018 -And now an entire organization was axed for what appears to be petty purposes due to an organization not following through with Nintendo and getting certified Yeah I can turn it off for a bit on tournament day, but man these fuckers are a miserable sight to behold.

[@shuikai272]

Not to mention the dozens and dozens of other people MeToo'd despite zero evidence.

[@TensuKawakab]

Crazy how Leffen and/or Jisu is apart of I think 6 of those.

[@GameConnoisseur69]

Smash is a genuinely disgusting community

[@hunbi1875]

Honestly the saddest part is that Hbox went from being the victim of the smash community to spreading the smash communities bullshit

[@neofromthewarnerbrothersic145]

Okay... this is a bit of a tangent, but please don't say "transgender ideology" so unironically ever again lmao I don't know if it was just a sloppy choice of words, but it's not an "ideology." Just like homosexuality isn't, or heterosexuality, or being white, black, male, female, etc. You could call them identifiers, identities, traits, characteristics, etc... but not ideologies. Are there aspects to those things that could be considered "ideological" to some degree? Sure, humans have lots of ideas and opinions about the things that identify them. But DaShizWiz's "religious faith" isn't refusing to acknowledge trans "ideology". -It- He is refusing to acknowledge trans people. Hiding behind "religious faith" is just a cop out. People choose which parts of the religion they want to adhere to as and when it suits them, and just as easily use the same religion to support opposing conclusions. Also, nobody gets canceled simply for _having_ certain beliefs or opinions. They get canceled because of *where and how they choose to express them.* DSW is a great example of this. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but when you're in public raising "alarm" about trans people in the community, that's not just you adhering to your own faith - that's you literally forcing it on others and expecting them to adhere as well. Weird how loudly expressing your belief that certain people are abominations and shouldn't be tolerated _actually makes those people less safe,_ and is therefor heavily frowned upon to the point where you may not be welcome at tournaments. In his little "message to the community" video he says "...so it's quite obvious that _my faith_ and _my belief_ BOTHERS the smash community..." and like, no dude. You do. P.S. Just in case you were about to say "yeah well trans people are forcing THEIR beliefs on me too!" Just don't. Nobody is asking you to change anything about how you live your own life. Only tolerate how other people live theirs. And yeah, I guess I'm also asking you to use words correctly because yours were incorrect in a very specific way.

[@crazypete7503]

still don’t understand how this dude doesnt have at least 50k subs, he is criminally underrated

[@vDeadbolt]

Smash community and a lack of critical thinking, name a more iconic duo

[@StevieD1x]

The scene needs to go underground again. Funk trying to be mainstream!!

[@vDeadbolt]

@@StevieD1x nah, the reason why it's garbage is because it's "grassroots". You let the community decide for themselves, they are gonna act like sheep and cancel anyone who doesn't fit their image. This BS is happening despite the fact that Nintendo has done nothin to cater to these cretins. The whole scene should just cease to exist

[@StevieD1x]

@@vDeadbolt interesting take. I somewhat agree.

[@mds_main]

Amazing video. I'm glad somebody is bringing light to this situation at last. I also hope that all those influencers (in and out of the Smash community) that took everything at face value will do a reaction to this video now.

[@ShaunInce123]

I have a feeling they'll ignore the video. Unless this video ends up doing very well in the algorithm in the following week.

[@d_sims]

I find it amusing that after all that's transpired, vgbc basically gets away with everything scot free with no accountability whatsoever. After all of vgbc's shortfalls, im a bit surprised and disappointed that their players continue to associate with them - guys such as amsa, tkbreezy, darkhorse, pink fresh to name a few. All while Panda's ENTIRE team was dissolved and disbanded. Personally, i wont feel satisfied until vgbc dissolves as an orgqnization and its members, especially gimr, are blacklisted from running future events.

[@spicedaddy1999]

I knew VGbootcamp was crooked since they shut down project m.

[@StevieD1x]

Rejecting Christ & PM was their true downfall.

[@matthewvonbargen9450]

I think this is the best take on this whole debacle. I knew that VGBC was in the wrong long ago. Thank you for doing all this work and research. Keep up the good work!

[@JesseIsBetterThanYou]

As someone who was completely unaware of the severe security issues until now, I could easily see how this all flew under the radar. There was never much information to work with unless you followed every aspect of the smash scene. A lot of people like me joined the smash community through ultimate, and even after following the scene for over 4 years, I'm still unfamiliar with many aspects of it. This was all super unfortunate, but I also can't blame everyone for taking SWT and VGBC at face value due to nintendo's history with smash and many of the interactions that prominent figures in the scene had with Alan. Even though it was too late and there's no undoing the damage that has been done, thank you for making this video now. Hopefully this will help prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

[@NrettG]

Yeah technicals did not make it out as big as that really was. From the way it looked and how he got in I figured it was only 100-200 people at the event for grand finals. When I heard that it was 1700 people though with NO security, how the fuck does that even happen?

[@skapenguin]

From the beging, it honestly seemed like Dr. Alan just had poor social skills so it was easy to misinterprete him. I thought immediately that VGBC was pointing fingers to deflect responsibility.

[@petercottantail7850]

I don't think panda was too blame. But in regards to what you are saying about alan; I found it very strange when he was interviewed how he always just ended every question with "i didn't know," and never really had an answer but always pivoted the subject to being about him as a victim. This is a classic narcissist/psychopath's tool at manipulation to avoid any liability for their actions. Like how do you have so much success with raising an org for almost a decade and then proceed to be completely incompetent for 2022 all of a sudden when negotiating collabs with other tos? It makes me think he was trying anti competitive tactics, and vgcb took it too personal. It's mostly irrelevant in regards to how swt ended up but definitely raises an eyebrow about what more could have been going on.

[@lalehiandeity1649]

@@petercottantail7850The TOs he tried negotiating with were, as he was told, afraid of the ‘shadow of Nintendo’ behind Panda. That’s not Alan’s fault. This is just conjecture, but it’s quite easy to envision that those conversations boiled down to ‘you’re working with Nintendo; we’re not going to work with you’. The fact that those TOs ganged up on Panda once VGBC’s statement came out without providing any receipts doesn’t paint them in a good, honest light.

[@marrysounds]

Vgbc are actually the worst, making bad decision after bad decision and then blaming the other and sinking a company in the process, it's discusting

[@OranguBANG]

👀 the production is getting wildly good

[@axon5643]

it's sad how everyone jumped on the hate bandwagon, claiming that Panda and Alan were out to ruin the smash scene and VGBC/SWT, and try to take everything for themselves, when the opposite is what really happened. SWT failed because of their own incompetence, and yet they decided to try and drag Panda (the ones actually working hard to do good things for Smash) down with them. and the worst part? they succeeded. they made Panda the scapegoat for their own failures, caused them to crumble and fall, and to this day, so many people in the smash community still hate and blame Panda. it's sickening.

[@samthebagman4643]

Coming back to this video over a year later, I forgot that I was the one who did the Michael Jackson Pog Face, I still have it saved and everything

[@vgrepairs]

Random clout mention? Thanks for that i guess? You want cookie?

[@samthebagman4643]

@vgrepairs sure, if you're offering

[@axon5643]

wasn't Double Down also the incident with Hungrybox coughing blood, still attending and not even wearing a mask, and having to's do nothing about it? i'd say that could have played a big role in violating nintendo's health and safety guidlines as well

[@ShaunInce123]

I believe it was.

[@CrazyDiamond13332]

Nice work little technicals

[@EclecticianG]

22:58 "Ten dollars is nothing compared to ten lives." I get what you're trying to say, but it would've been much better to say "Ten dollars is nothing compared to ONE life."

[@elliotmedia]

Thanks for the vid. The only one that actually starts to make sense about the tragedy of two world cups

[@14fluffies]

"And we all know who to blame: ESAM." I fucking knew it 🤣

[@crew_the3rd]

☠ SWT felt like they were going down and did not hesitate to take out Alan on the way down. SWT broke countless Nintendo rules and still had the balls to cry wolf. SWT was in massive debt and realized this was a savvy way to go down while shifting blame, so evil. Alan got played and taken out. He was not tactful so they used his poor word choices to set him up and frame him, easy head shot. SWT canceled itself and took out Alan. Nintendo made things difficult and uncertain as usual. Panda org was collateral damaged, countless progress lost, and the Smash community will never have anything nice because Twitter is Judging, Jury, and executioner.

[@BrutalHips]

Gimr is such a snake lmao Man is a pro at playing the victim. Killed PM, AND crippled the smash community for what

[@ibrahimhaj7040]

As you mentioned about some security stuff. When I went to low tide 2021 the last two days security barely checked bags. They didn’t even bother to look.

[@crispydonut9553]

I can't believe it really is just two guys who are actually trying to maintain the integrity of the entire Smash community. thefranChise and Technicals, keep up the amazing work

[@CharlieGreasby]

Literally so true

[@laserbeamlightning]

They ain’t perfect either. Technicals trying to brush aside the details of ZeRo and Katie but I’d take their commentary any day over any Bs gimr has to say

[@hocuspocus5256]

Tech defended Zero and acted like Katie doesnt exist... dude is at the bottom of the barrel

[@shialecuck4149]

BLM

[@queuedjar4578]

@@hocuspocus5256 Technicals only defended Zero's right to move on with his life and learn from his mistakes. He's personally condemned the (confirmed, among the many falsely accused) harmful actions of Zero in the past and doesn't even personally think he should be involved in the smash community anymore, that was among one of the first points he made in his initial videos on Zero.

[@MetiCu]

already know this is bout to be a banger

[@Alph4Falc0]

Nice to see you here stranger

[@dudeman7229]

W

[@PoorStargazer]

What a world we live in where our melee content creators (not personalities or players) are more in line with the people

[@ChristsKeyblade]

Huge step up in quality, can't wait to see more of your videos going forward. Also hoping you do a colab with tech on his next big case.

[@cynnguyen13]

I like how you lace metaphors and common analogies through the video. It makes catching up to the story’s context easier.

[@christophernigro9137]

GODDAMNIT ESAM LOL Great video as always, Mr. Chise! :)

[@funkymon1251]

The lack of accountability is just sad and goofy as hell for grown man to be doing that. It cost them a license to be legit as a result.

[@Gearsio]

I don't think it can be emphasized enough that this video needs to get out to the community

[@Alph4Falc0]

Taking esam to the boxing ring fr

[@hylianmango8272]

go boxing ring

[@Hammerhead0276]

Excellent video! Honestly, I was hoping for something like this so I'm glad Technicals passed it along for sure! Will say though - as a person whose worked under a number of contracts, for Dr. Alan's part I think he was absolutely in the wrong to use information confided in to from Nintendo to attempt to persuade TO's to convert over. It comes off as a power play no matter how you try to spin it and for all intents and purposes: it wasn't his information to give and some company's would even take legal action in those types of cases. But like you said, Nintendo recognized this and Panda was already taking actions to rectify it. So Panda really just exploded for nothing, millions of dollars and nearly 100 jobs lost because VGBC decided to and continues to be petty, to what end I'll never understand. but I feel really bad for the Panda employees, people who just worked for a living who were punished for doing honest work in a field they love.

[@LHSMeleeClub]

Your take here is spot-on and you're being even more critical of Allen than franchise was in this video. but even still you acknowledge how awful it is that Panda imploded and I appreciate/respect that. I wish more people had these takes instead of being sheep. it really is a shame lolugh. Besides slippi melee releasing, summer 2020 to present has truly been the darkest time for the smash community

[@BloodruneEnt.]

While personally I find Panda to be a bit clickbaity on KZbin, they were a legit esports business for the little man known as the FGC and to see them torn down because the Smash Community, once again, was so quick to jump the gun than actually ask some real questions about why things went the way they did is sad. Smash Community never wants to address in-house problems and I don’t see them ever turning around to deal with them, gotta blame someone else, else it’s their fault, they don’t want that lmao.

[@ZawaOnYoutube]

Insanely clickbaity, and not great content. Sucks this happened, but it's for the best they're gone.

[@djerk2138]

Thank you for making this video, before i only had the perspective of my favorite smash youtubers and alot of the things in this situation seemed a little fishy, u hav revealed some of what i had suspected. I hope this comment helps boost the algorithm enough, more of the smash community needs to see this!

[@TheRealMyan]

The editing is insane! Love to see more videos like this.

[@kyallon1213]

What still pisses me off is that we know nothing about VGBC’s communication with Panda. Like you’re trying to get a circuit licensed, another org gets theirs licensed, and instead of asking “hey how was that process” you just ignore the unquestionable best resource you have access to? And at the same time, wtf was alan doing communicating to everyone BUT VGBC about the very legitimate issues surrounding SWT? How stupid do you have to be to not warn an event organizer that their event is at risk?

[@falicer]

Because VGBT was communicating with Nintendo themselves, not like VGBC liked Panda anyway. If you look at everything that happened VGBC was literally IGNORING demands from Nintendo to finish the process and just did whatever they wanted, you can't blame Alan/Panda for this when this is all VGBC's fault for ignoring the 1 company that can literally shut down their whole business. I don't blame Nintendo at all for not giving a license to a company ignoring their guidelines and process, at the end of the day it's still THEIR IP, not Panda's, not VGBC's, but Nintendo's. All VGBC had to do was wait, discuss and adapt for Nintendo to give their approval and they didn't.

[@lalehiandeity1649]

Alan directly answers that question in the Jacob Wolfe interview. He didn’t reach out to VGBC because he had every reason to believe they were already well aware that Nintendo didn’t approve of them.

[@JayRoninJay]

Face reveal and a great video? Good stuff my man. The most annoying part is that the community is going to pretend this video doesn’t exist or just attack you without addressing any of your points

[@ShaunInce123]

If this video ends up with 1 million views like the Leffen one, they won't be able to ignore it.

[@Hmty2383]

funny how everyone just went "Panda Man Bad"

[@Creampanthers]

It’s kinda shows just how valuable being more interlaced with in the community can be. Like Gimr made videos and was active within the scene. The creates trust among the people in the scene and important to the scene. This is why companies with have their CEO visit locations around the world. Not to really do anything besides be visible and give the appearance that they care. Even disagreeing about any facts in the circumstances; VGBC simply had more visibility and better PR

[@queuedjar4578]

You're talking about people hell bent on creating boogeymen to blame all their problems on as opposed to taking accountability for their own childish tendencies.

[@KKDiglett]

why isnt this talked about in the smah Community

[@thopoulosp.4893]

Hot take, but I kind of wanted BTS to agree with the contract Panda was trying to do with them. It seems Doctor Alan wasn't the best communicator, but it would be indeed profitable for BTS, as they themselves acknowledged, but didn't accept for other reasons. Respectable, but I didn't want to see them end like that. Perhaps they could've used the money. All in all, as bad as Doctor Alan might be (whatever it is), maybe he was indeed just helping the community overall. More money, licensed events and etc. And it's heartbreaking to see that all go to waste.

[@benjaminobi]

I'm willing to admit I was wrong.

[@michaelcottrello]

Also Puppeh got groomed at VGBC’s local.

[@PhilipWester]

And the commentstors saw it and commented on it as if it was a cool thing during their live commentaty instead of doing anything to stop it.

[@markee3738]

they're gonna do so much fucking damage control once this video eventually blows up lmao

[@ShaunInce123]

I remember when the Leffen video franchise did a while back started doing really well in the algorithm. I think it scared Leffen into retreating to his second channel lol.

[@Jesus-hu4lq]

I think he ran to his other game guilty gear strive as well

[@xxProjectJxx]

When this whole drama was going down, I found it so hard to keep up with. I had no idea what the Panda Cup or the Smash World Tour were, and the only thing I kept hearing consistently were that Panda were the bad guys behind all the drama lol

[@VerbDoesStuff]

Awesome video, AND your outro is really cool.

[@smashmonkey6304]

Haven't finished the video. but 0:57 Im glad someone finally made the connection with the "Health and Safety" concern and Technicals sneaking in to SWT

[@PepsiMan666]

I saw people from the FGC taking everything at face value. Like I understand when people like Critikal don't know what they're talking, he's not part of the community or any adjacent community. Big figures in the FGC SHOULD'VE had a much more critical eye. Very disappointing response from them.

[@eyashamdan4371]

This is what happens when people do actual research

[@bokc_ellis]

I don't think panda deserved the cancelation. The real culprit is VGBC and their bad management and responsibility

[@ZawaOnYoutube]

Nah Panda was trash, but for many other reasons

[@zetsun0]

And this is exactly why I like formulating my own ideas after the dust has settled a bit. Especially with how bandwagon-ey the smash scene is.

[@TheObicobiHD]

Great video mate, love your editing style and delivery. The smash community never fails to dissapoint lol

[@TheEngineer28]

Holy crap, this was eye-opening. More people need to see this video.

[@patomora2282]

Smash world tour in south América was so much worse than this, the guys at VGBC screwed the whole ass event not to mention all the shady shit that happend with ultimate. Also melee got cancelled out of nowhere with shitty excuses and we never got to see the results of the matches that happend behind the scene.

[@patomora2282]

Also not to mention the enviorment that VGBC gave the melee scene in SA was so horse shit and literally made the players play in a hush hush situation and gave excuses for the cancelation of the event due to covid restriction (they had months to plan ahead and SA has more than 10 countries with different rules about health and safety all of this confirmed by ult players, To's and melee players) but I guess SA ain't that important right Gimr?

[@patomora2282]

The worst of this is that u cant find any info about the melee stuff, at least the ultimate stuff got some documentation and traction on Twitter but the melee shit got swept under the rug like it never happend...

[@LCMaestro15]

That outro becoming more iconic than Pyro’s Beachwalk. Not really close, but up there. Nice vid Franchise, proud of ya!

[@Andy251153]

Yeah I was genuinely confused why there was no security on the last day, when I was there day 1 and 2 were at least a little bit more locked down but godam

[@CHRIS-X]

Crabs in a bucket is a perfect analogy for the smash community in general

[@Energyswordsunday]

Gimr lied and killed the smash scene; now we need to rebuild it from scratch. Panda couldn't do shit because they lost their sponsors, and ludwig riled the community behind his tournament.

[@Energyswordsunday]

We're fucked, and we're never going to be an esport. Smashers can't be wishy washy

[@StevieD1x]

gimr & the influx of lgbt players killed the scene. time to move on.

[@StevieD1x]

ludwig is NOT our friend.

[@Energyswordsunday]

@@StevieD1x woah no need to be discriminatory of LGBT literally no one said shit about them.

[@StevieD1x]

@@Energyswordsunday 🤣😂🤣

[@benisign]

Bro I'm so glad I left the smash community. Love the game to bits and I'm sure the local scene is chill but there isn't a single large figure I enjoy in the community.

[@Abhorrantpsyche]

Damn, a really good informative video on an aspect on this issue no one really touched on. Good stuff.

[@TheNoMoreGamer]

Man, just goes to show the greatest enemy smash players face, are smash players.

[@primal44]

The smash community continues to foster the most pathetic and disappointing image I’ve ever seen and I’m sad I spend the energy resenting it

[@roysrevengefgcofficial1508]

VGBC and the smash community doing what they do best, making crucial mistakes that puts the community at Jeopardy and pointing the finger at somebody else LMAO gaslighting God knows how many innocent people along the way😭😭😭🤣🤣🤣 It would be in Nintendo's *BEST* interest to never involve themselves in the competitive smash community

[@defectivesickle5643]

Thinking Nintendo refusing involvement is for any kind of moral reason is laughable

[@N12015]

In short, it was not a 2 part issue, it was A 3 PART issue where EVERYONE did things wrong and acted like my dad with politics: unwilling to listen to others. The only one who acted reasonable was Nintendo somehow, asking for actual approval and standard safety measures any big event should have to avoid crabs. I guess our hatred for Nintendo was just too high to see the truth.

[@rocklob069]

Things were looking so good man. In the moment it didnt feel like we had everything, but in retrospect we really had it all.

[@itaohs5551]

All roads lead back to ESAM lmfao

[@cstick2664]

When this was first going down I thought it was just Nintendo being Nintendo again. I got kinda confused how Panda got wrapped up in it let alone became the main villain