Nintendo shuts down Smash World Tour ‘without any warning’

Said tournament was going to have the largest ever prize pool of $250,000.

Given the company’s aggressive copyright enforcement, this isn’t the first time that Nintendo has forced grassroots competitions using its games to stop operating, having similarly shut down a Super Smash Bros. tournament in 2020. Nintendo also notably ordered Evo — the world’s largest fighting game tournament — to shut down a planned Melee event in 2013 before reversing the decision.

The Smash World Tour said it will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the shutdown but reassures all attendees of the canceled events that they will be issued full refunds.