Nintendo is continuing on its hot streak of being gaming's surprise villain this year by canceling its own live stream of a large Splatoon 2 tournament, seemingly in response to some of the participating teams' names referencing Nintendo's recent actions against the Super Smash Bros. community. These actions have caused yet another outpouring of anger towards Nintendo and two unlikely communities to come together to support one another.

The online competitive community started to turn against Nintendo late last month after the publisher issued a cease-and-desist for one of the largest open-format Super Smash Bros. tournaments due to its online nature usage of a third-party mod. Nintendo stated that the mod in question, Slippi, could encourage players to illegally download copies of Super Smash Bros. Melee regardless of the game being 19-years-old and lacking native online support. Nintendo then began to target harmless Smash Bros. mod videos on YouTube, and public sentiment (at least among the hardcore and streaming crowds) towards to the company has perhaps never been lower in recent memory

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Now, Nintendo has decided to cancel its official stream of the Splatoon 2 NA Open tournament after a handful of the top placing team names contain wording that supports the #FreeMelee movement. That hashtag is used by players who believe Nintendo should stop restricting the growth of the competitive Super Smash Bros. scene and allow the game to become a viable esport. Twitter user SlimyQuagsire reported the Splatoon 2 stream cancellation along with a screenshot of Nintendo claiming the stream was canceled due to "unexpected executional challenges." Only 30% of the teams participating in the tournament had a reference to the Super Smash Bros. Melee debacle in their names, but it was apparently enough for Nintendo to pull the plug on its stream.

Nintendo's actions once again caused a trend of Twitter, but this time it was users using the hashtag "#FreeSplatoon". Thousands of Twitter users came together to show their support for both the Splatoon and Super Smash Bros. communities by rallying against Nintendo with the tag. EndGameTV then opted to host the unofficial official live stream of the tournament with a community-funded prize pool starting at $1,000. Some donors are even rewarding teams and players if their in-game names reference Smash Bros. in any way.

While Nintendo didn't outright cancel the tournament, canceling the stream is just as effective. If there isn't an incentive to play, a lot of the qualifying players may not show up causing the tournament to cancel itself. Luckily, the Super Smash Bros. and Splatoon communities are proving that they do not need Nintendo to garner support, and as a result, players will actually be able to compete for a legitimate prize pool.

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Source: SlimyQuagsire