The unofficial Super Smash Bros. series ‘Smash World Tour’ has announced the cancellation of both upcoming Smash World Tour Championships as well as the 2023 tour.

After ongoing communication with Nintendo, the event organiser received a “notice” from the company that it could “no longer operate”. Here’s part of the lengthy official statement from Smash World Tour, which you can read in full via the link below:

“Without any warning, we received notice the night before Thanksgiving from Nintendo that we could no longer operate. This was especially shocking given our discourse with Nintendo the past twelve months. Since then, we have been working around the clock to take the proper steps logistically, as well as to prepare this statement with proper legal guidance.”

“…In 2022 alone, we connected over 6,400 live events worldwide, with over 325,000 in-person entrants, making the Smash World Tour (SWT, or the Tour) the largest esports tour in history, for any game title. The Championships would also have had the largest prize pool in Smash history at over $250,000. The 2023 Smash World Tour planned to have a prize pool of over $350,000.”

“…The impact the Tour has had globally cannot be overstated — the amount of tournament organizers, competitors and fans this will affect is hard to measure. We realized just how much we could expand our spotlight to lesser-known regions, as well as Smash World Tour prize pools in 2023 and beyond, establishing a much healthier ecosystem in the community around the world. We believe this decision by Nintendo sets all of that back significantly, which is incredibly disappointing.”