Nintendo cancels Splatoon tournament stream after players show support for Melee

Update: After Nintendo's decision to shut down the official stream for the event, the Splatoon 2 community decided to organise their own invitational tournament, reaching over 28,000 USD from donations in the process. Read all about it here.

Nintendo's fight to diminish Smash Bros Melee's scene continues with the incredibly petty decision to cancel the official stream for the Splatoon 2 North American Open December Finals, simply because teams and players sported names in support of the platform fighter. 

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The NA Open December tournament, a sponsored event part of the NintendoVS Autumn Series ran by the company itself featuring titles like Arms, Smash Ultimate, and Splatoon 2, was set to be livestreamed on Nintendo's YouTube channel, as per usual, this weekend.

Sadly, T.O Alexander "Slimy" R. shared via Twitter that, while the event is indeed taking place, there will not be a stream for fans to tune into.

So the Splatoon community, in support of the Smash community, has 30% of the top teams in this weekend's Spl2 NA Open with Team names in support of Melee and Smash.
So what does @NintendoAmerica@NintendoVS do in response?
They cancelled their livestream for tomorrow's Finals.

— Slimy (@SlimyQuagsire) December 5, 2020

"So the Splatoon community, in support of the Smash community, has 30% of the top teams in this weekend's Spl2 NA Open with Team names in support of Melee and Smash. So what does @NintendoAmerica @NintendoVS do in response? They cancelled their livestream for tomorrow's Finals," the tweet reads.

Nintendo is now hurting the small yet dedicated Splatoon 2 community (Picture: Nintendo)

A quick look at the top placed teams via Battlefy is enough to see the solidarity from the Splatoon 2 community, as even squads like FTWin, multiple time NA Champions joined in, registering as FTWaveDash, a nod to Melee's popular movement technique that's defined the game for years.

Dedicated members of the Splatoon community such as Slimy and commentator Nick Hitzel rallied the scene to show support for Melee back at the end of November, just mere days after The Big House tournament was cancelled due to a cease and desist letter issued by Nintendo.

So if we all sign up as this, they can't ban everybody... right? https://t.co/lM6A6XYywCpic.twitter.com/hBeY0QQGto

— Nick Hitzel (@Hitzel89) November 24, 2020

For those unaware, the cancellation stemmed from the usage of Slippi, a third-party created mod to Melee which allows the Dolphin emulator to run the game using rollback netcode. 

The Big House's cancellation sparked rage in the Melee community (Photo: The Big House)

According to a public statement made by Nintendo, after attempts to engage in conversation with TBH's tournament organisers, they were left with "no choice but to step in" and protect their intellectual property.

• Read more: Ludwig announces $10K Melee tournament to be played using Slippi

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic hitting major esports across all scenes, Nintendo remained firm when it came to its continued support of the NintendoVS events, even if that assistance took the form of exposure above all else, rather than actual incentives and prize pools help grow and sustain the esport, as a company truly committed to that goal would do.

Just for context, the Top 4 teams of the Splatoon 2 NA Open December Finals will receive a commemorative trophy, while teams placed 5th-8th get 2,500 MyNintendo Points.

It seems that Nintendo is acting like that little rich kid on the playground, buying a ball for everyone to play with only to rage when they find out they're not the best or most well-liked and take it home with them, maltreating not only Melee but a small yet dedicated Splatoon community in the process.

At the time of writing, Nintendo could not be reached for comment.