Nintendo Super Smash Bros Tournament Licensing Dispute

An interesting story has recently come out, featuring Nintendo shutting down a relatively large Super Smash Bros tournament that was set to go ahead later next week. The story is still developing, but as of now, it looks like there was some sort of licensing dispute between the organizer of the tournament, Smash World Tour, and Nintendo. It also seems like there was a third organizer in the mix, Panda, who there have been allegations against of being granted an exclusive license for the game’s tournament scene. Nintendo denies these allegations, and has stated they will speak to Panda’s CEO after he had been telling people that Smash World Tour was going to be cancelled. Nintendo’s story as of now remains that they were simply not able to come to an agreement with Smash World Tour to be a partner for the tournament circuit for 2023. I found this news interesting from the intellectual property perspective that Nintendo owns their game and the corresponding rights to it and therefore seems to have full control over who can play it (at a tournament level) and who can organize such tournaments. I am curious about the broad implications and impacts this has on the players that had been preparing to be a part of the Smash World Tour and now may not be a part of Panda’s tournaments.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/major-smash-bros-tournament-shut-down-by-nintendo/