Nintendo's New Tournament Guidelines

[@MattyS54]

absolutlely baffling & most of the guidelines unenforcable. one would think Nintendo is looking at the future and scaling up their own e-sports styled competitions but who knows. it's always best to work with the existing community regardless. it's totally backward to see organically growing scenes as taking value away from their product when it's the opposite.

[@HDRookie]

Completely agree. The thing is, we would be happy if they were just getting into competitive gaming. But there are so many questions left unanswered. We are not even sure if they understand how to make a good ruleset. Furthermore, it allows Nintendo to pick winners essentially. We are definitely not sure if they're going to be choosing the people who have invested/care the most. They tend to be very distrusting toward people they don't already know I think, which is a scary thought.

[@Chillaccino1]

As a competitive smash player this is AWFUL for our scene, which has always been on the defensive

[@k.brooks9654]

Nintendo wants organisers to consider the health and safety of the participants, but they can't sell food and drink? Hello?

[@linguine2081]

I appriciate all thw work MKC has done. I have met so many new friends over the competitions and the few events i have atendeed have been unforgettable. Much love to rookie and all the MKC staff

[@HDRookie]

Appreciate it man.

[@thespearmeister2251]

As someone whose passion for Nintendo games has faded in recent years, I'm not really upset or happy about it all, I just feel jaded. It tells me that they never cared about their fans who want their games to be something more than just games, and that they never will. I know this isn't just about Smash but I can't help but be reminded of the collapse of the Smash circuits last year. We were all so hopeful that they were starting to open up and be more supportive, but in the end they retreated back to their old ways (I know there's a lot more to that story, both sides messed up). After them pretty much harassing us for, what, two decades now, I feel like we were just foolish to be so optimistic about it all. I don't think this is Nintendo trying to offer support to their competitive scenes, at best they're just trying to forcefully inject themselves into them to look like they're involved. At worst, they're actively trying to shut it all down outright.

[@HDRookie]

Yeah, I am a little nervous. Seems we don't have a choice but to make the best of it though.

[@Luigi99997]

already know this is gonna be another W vid when i watch it after school

[@HDRookie]

It's not the most exciting topic really, but it feels necessary to talk about.

[@oppa.24]

I think that it is not allowed to use brand names and IPs as titles for tournaments, because there are laws that require companies to protect their brand so as not to lose copyright. For example, youtubers were forbidden to have the word "Lego" in their name.

[@HDRookie]

Are these laws recent? Because if not, it seems strange that there was not policy on this earlier.

[@oppa.24]

@@HDRookie These laws have been in place for some time, at least in the EU. Maybe US laws changed recently and Nintendo had to act. But that's all just speculation.

[@silverxks]

Most Nintendo thing ever. Just sad to be honest

[@HDRookie]

🫂

[@greyowl3787]

How are they even going to enforce all that, send ninjas to every school on the planet ? It could become a PR disaster, no idea what they’re thinking.

[@HDRookie]

I believe the real reason is to just not leave loose ends in regards to sponsors but this is so oddly specific and I think all it does is just make people scared. Any school tournament that might pop up probably won't be aware of these guidelines. They seem more for like people like MKC Users, Smash Melee Players, etc.

[@oppa.24]

MKU has like 1500+ players 💀

[@princesssbrat]

There’s a lot I don’t understand and I have plenty of comments regarding the entire guideline but the school thing is really tripping me up. So if you are hosting a tournament at your school, you can only play in it if you’re a member of the club hosting it? Like… isn’t the point of hosting a tournament at your school the prime opportunity for people outside or your club to see what you are about and pique outsiders interest? It seems to shoot themselves in the foot in several ways. 1. That club was doing them a favor by getting someone to possibly try a game they never played. And if they enjoyed it, who knows they may have bought it when they went home because they enjoyed the tournament so much and want to play more. And 2. This actively hurts them because these restrictions mean the clubs are just going to advertise other games from different companies so they don’t have to deal with bogus restrictions and legal ramifications. Effectively obliterating what is considered “free advertisement” for themselves. This pretty much is inadvertently HELPING their competitors in a sense. I can keep going but that is so bizarre for them to care at that level and to this degree.

[@HDRookie]

I want to say that because of the second part, it is discussing rules for being eligible for a team. It sounds like MKU registration type of rules. With that being said, the fact that we're even discussing something like this goes back to the whole point of the absurdity in what they are trying to regulate.

[@luffythegamur]

the 300 participants thing sucks for splatoon because nintendo will consider each team member as 1 participant meaning there can only be 75 teams

[@M64bros]

I would say it's deserving cuz after what the smash community did behind the scenes, I highly doubt Nintendo would want to support any competitive players that do completely awful stuff in the smash community. I'm sure they want to protect their brand from the disgusting people from the smash community since smash Bros is a family brand and needs to be protected.

[@HDRookie]

I understand the concern, but the reality here is that the Smash community fosters so many great people with genuinely great intentions. These sanctions are an easy way out for Nintendo that unjustly hurt more people than they justly hit deserving people with. Same goes for communities like Mario Kart. I'm not sure what we did to deserve any of this

[@M64bros]

​@@HDRookie not just the pedophilia in the smash community behind the scenes, but also the terrible people that sent death threats to Sakurai over DLC, The smash community had a big opportunity with the license for the Nintendo and they just completely blew it from the get-go. The problem is the community itself can easily affect the brand IP image for casual players that enjoy the game respectfully without any one from the smash community harming or them affiliated with them. I still love Super Smash Bros and Sakurai and his team, But I will always despise its toxic community. The community has already done a lot of damage to itself and we've got to let them get exposed to the public, lastly, I'm sure a bunch of people can still do these tournaments with or without Nintendo's permission outside casually. Trust me, I used to love the Super Smash Bros community as a fan but I left in 2020 after what they've done. The problem is if people blame nintendo as a whole, They drag in the developers and the employees considering the fact they have absolutely nothing to do with the DMCA legal team that makes those decisions.

[@MajoraJeff]

​​@@M64brosI want 100% agree with you bro Smash Bros is a really fun as a game but the community is really ass I don't blame Nintendo for being restrictive especially towards the Smash Bros community I don't really feel any sympathy for any of these people anymore

[@M64bros]

@@MajoraJeff Exactly!

[@chief664]

It may or may not be true, but It’s really hard to feel that Nintendo harbors anything but hatred for the competitive smash community. I can’t remember the last time Nintendo has had a positive interaction with smash fans other then new character announcements. Again, It might not be true, but It sure as hell feels true.

[@HDRookie]

Right. It feels like it should be really easy for them to show genuine appreciation if they actually felt that way. For us MK players, it's a lot more convoluted. We aren't sure if we're on the radar.

[@masterofdesaster5367]

Maybe rhe true tourament rules are the friends we made along the way

[@TompaA]

Even if this meant to be focused on larger events with prize money and such, there is nothing in the guidelines; at least no that I noticed, that specify that these are the only tournaments that are affected by theese guidelines. The Speedrun community, which I'm part of, often have tournaments for various games, regulary hosted on Challonge. These are usually not big tournaments, nor is always prize money involved though it happens, though these guidelines will effect them as well. Not being able to call your tournament "Super Mario Bros. Speedrun Tournament" or whataver is completely delusional or by having a picture of Mario in the corner for the stream layout also being banned, it's completely mental guidelines. This is a big "Yes" to your stream title. Despite that Nintendo claim in the second sentence of the guidelines that "Nintendo cares about the community" it really is a big lie. They clearly want to punish/restrict players who enjoy the game and give them free advertisements for their games, likely earning them millions all games combined, with a lame way of trying to keep their IP protected. It's a bunch of bullshit is what it is.

[@Zolothepug]

Nintendo switch fortnite players tournaments Nintendo have to charge licenses for tournament

[@Marshall.R]

The pessimist in me almost wants to believe that this is Nintendo's way of making their multiplayer games obsolete so that consumers continue buying new games rather than playing the same older ones for years without providing Nintendo any additional money (at least, beyond Nintendo Switch Online I guess). By making it an order of magnitude more difficult to run a compliant tournament, the ways in which the most passionate players of a multiplayer game experience that game can be significantly reduced, making it easier for those players to eventually get bored and move on to the most recent game where Nintendo's pitiful attempts at organizing official tournaments for said game is the closest thing they have. I don't think it'll work, but I could see that being their end goal.

[@HDRookie]

They have no realization that the people who want to try the new games will always willingly do so. Taking away old ones will not help the newnand debatably hurt them if anything.

[@thogameskanaal]

My question is: how are they gonna enforce all this?

[@HDRookie]

It's a great question. We'll have to wait and see.

[@Rorzilla_racing]

this seems like its hinting towards nintendo doing esports and built in streaming because thing like eu championship mk qualifyers went over 3k players so either theres that or there rich old japanese men that dont know what theyre doing

[@Rorzilla_racing]

i will also need to say if they are doing this esport stuff they will need to fix there advertising as a Dutch person the Benelux seasonal circuit is really easy because only a few good players show up I wanted to attend the EU championship for mario kart but I couldn't find any tickets or any sign they were selling tickets

[@HDRookie]

The issue here is that I don't think they understand how to run better tournaments than their community does. Unless they are willing to be flexible, I think the players lose out here.

[@classic5581]

Mario Kart, Smash Bros, and Splatoon are going to suffer And im really scared of what will happen in the future we don't wanna lose our favorite games Just imagine the game will end up dead and nintendo just push the IP in to the trash like F-zero did I hope the MKU is going to bring there voice to all the splatoon and smash communities are busy fighting against it 😞😞

[@SB2749]

That's virtually impossible to happen, the competitive base of these games is a very niche community compared to the more casual majority of the Switch userbase. Still sucks that they're doing this at all though

[@HDRookie]

Yeah, they aren't really worried about losing us. We have to hope that they just do the right thing, really. That being said, it isn't game over yet. We've been put on notice and will have to wait to see how they want to enforce this or see if we get rejected.

[@tobyzilla]

To be honest the part where you are not allowed to run a charity tournament kinda pissed me off and that shows Nintendo doesn't care about anyone but themselves

[@HDRookie]

Definitely hurt to read.

[@DanielDeLeon69]

I know there's a lot of competitive players

[@FourFinger.]

Protest time

[@HDRookie]

We aren't close enough to that point yet I think, though that mainly has to do with us running tournaments for Switch games. Older games have been left completely out to dry, which is pretty wrong...

[@Wedge_Khan]

​@HDRookie yeah, because Nintendo did whatever they could to kill those communities years ago