This weekend, Nintendo held its Splatoon 2 North American Open. Although a livestream was planned for the finals, it ended up getting cancelled due to “unexpected executional challenges”.
There were no further details, but some fans seem to think they might know what’s going on…
In a post over on the Smash Bros. subreddit, it’s highlighted how a number of the teams in this event had #FreeMelee hashtags and names. This all stems from the uproar last month when the longest-running Super Smash Bros. tournament in the US “The Big House” received a cease and desist from Nintendo.
As you might recall, the issue Nintendo had with this particular event was the fact this year’s tournament required “illegally copied versions” of Super Smash Bros. Melee and would also make use of Slippi Online – rollback netcode allowing players to duke it out online.
This has now reportedly boiled over to the Splatoon competitive scene, as further illustrated in the tweets below:
The same Twitter user goes on to state how the community apparently isn’t “surprised” by this:
“To be clear this is Ninten do’s call, not any of the TOs or broadcasters they’ve enlisted for the weekend. This is damage control and an outright spit in the face of all of their dedicated competitive scenes. But we ain’t surprised”
Keep in mind, that for now, this is all just speculation. What do you make of all this yourself, though? Leave a comment down below and to learn more about the #FreeMelee and #SaveSmash movement, see our previous post.
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