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Nintendo has updated their Community Tournament Guidelines with a whole slew of new requirements and restrictions, and there’s a ton of stuff in there that’s going to make tournaments a lot more difficult for fans to run.

These guidelines have only been shared in North America, the UK and Japan, and they have a number of standard requests and rules, but there some other baffling additions that will no doubt hinder community tournament growth.

For whatever reason, Nintendo has said that sponsors will not be allowed for community-run tournaments, and the same goes for the sale of food, drinks and merch. These two rules combined will make it incredibly difficult for some communities to not only run tournaments, but find places to do so.

The list of guidelines is incredibly long, and also features a rather lengthy Q&A section to try and clear up confusion. You can see the entire set of guidelines, questions and answers here.

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Comments (8)

ovenmitts

5M ago

These new rules are needlessly abrasive and stifle some of the company's biggest supporters. Why Nintendo would care about erroneous things like concession sales or if a tournament has over 201 in-person competitors at once is beyond me. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of pushback from the community and it's rightfully deserved.


vinlauria

5M ago

About time Nintendo found their balls again after the EVO 2013 disaster.

Edited 1 time

enthropy

5M ago

I just can't see what Nintendo could gain from this. It's just beyond silly from what I see.


vinlauria

5M ago

@enthropy

Putting comps back in their place like the good old days of Gen7.


enthropy

5M ago

@vinlauria

Uhm... Comps? Care to explain? =D


nekotaku

5M ago

Isn't it only if you don't apply for a license?


vinlauria

5M ago

@enthropy

Simple.

The Smash competitive scene - particularly the Melee camp - is full of scumbags who have done nothing but abuse the official goodwill they were begrudgingly afforded after they successfully pushed back against Nintendo's efforts to keep Melee out of EVO 2013. Ever since then, we've all had to suffer the effects of the comp scene running rampant for the past decade, because - wouldn't you know it - letting these people have free reign and influence led to all sorts of nasty controversies and boundary-pushing that all came to a head in the plethora of sexual misconduct allegations around 2020, with Nintendo rightfully making moves to distance themselves from the scene again ever since. Because that's what happens when the only check you do of someone's character is whether they're good at an old video game and not whether they're actually a good person.

It's a sad thing the scene ever realized its "phoenix" era after 2013, because many people (yours truly included) saw this coming in the event of a comp revival even before the scene found its chance to rise from the proverbial ashes. Many of us didn't want the Smash competitive scene to experience that revival a decade ago, and for good reason. The halcyon days of being a Nintendo fan - not that you'd know it listening to the comp scene, who call that era the "dark age" - was from 2007-2013, encompassing most of Gen7 and the earliest days of Gen8. And wouldn't you know it, a large part of why those days were great came from the fact that the scene was dying out and the few who were left had to keep their heads down because everyone else was fed up with the BS they'd been perpetuating unchecked throughout their so-called "golden age" in the Gen6 days.

Unfortunately, the post-2013 revival brought forth a new wave of brainwashed kids who came in after being indoctrinated by that insipid post-EVO "documentary" they made and were unaware of prior controversies, giving the comps a new horde of lackeys to drown out the old guard who'd opposed them. Hence the 2013-2020 actual dark age - which the comps of course instead call the "platinum age" - until the one-two punch of COVID and the sex pest controversies finally slapped them deservedly back down somewhat. But the fact that it ever came to that rather than the scene actually dying out completely when it was supposed to - that the competitive scene ever experienced its revival at all - remains the darkest black mark on Nintendo fan culture. We'd all have been better off if Nintendo had their way back then. Well, except for the comps, but screw those creeps.

Edited 26 times

enthropy

5M ago

@vinlauria

Thank you for the details. I heard about the harassment stuff and that it was bad and damn toxic. So you make some pretty good points on here and of course Nintendo do not want their name on anything like that scandal.

Too bad for the other gamers though who do this seriously.