Nintendo shuts down Big House, threatens Smash Melee scene

Steven Rondina Published 20/11/2020

The esports scene surrounding Super Smash Bros. Melee is in dire straits right now, and Nintendo looks to be committed to keeping it that way.

The gaming company shut down an upcoming online Melee tournament organized by The Big House due to its use of third-party online infrastructure. As a result, the organizer announced the event’s cancellation in a post on Twitter.

“The Big House is heartbroken to share we’ve received a cease and desist from Nintendo of America, Inc. to cancel our upcoming online event. We were informed we do not have permission to host or broadcast the event, primarily due to the usage of Slippi. Sadly, all our competitions are affected,” the Big House announced.

What is Slippi in Smash Bros. Melee?

As mentioned, this stems from the usage of Slippi. Slippi is a netcode system based on GGPO which is designed for Gamecube emulators. It’s stable enough to allow for professional play and is widely regarded as the best online gaming experience in the Smash Bros. series, besting even Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch. 

While many fighting games suffer from issues with dropped inputs that prevent combos from being completed or precise attacks from being made, GGPO’s rollback netcode anticipates how inputs fit together while competing online. This makes it an ideal system for fighting games, and its quality has seen it adopted by a number of major fighting game publishers.

Nintendo issued a statement of its own to Polygon, acknowledging that the use of Slippi is what triggered the takedown.

“Unfortunately, the upcoming Big House tournament announced plans to host an online tournament…that requires use of illegally copied versions of the game in conjunction with a mod called “Slippi” during their online event. Nintendo therefore contacted the tournament organizers to ask them to stop. They refused, leaving Nintendo no choice but to step in to protect its intellectual property and brands,” Nintendo said.

Alongside the cancellation of the Big House tournament, Smash Bros. star Juan “HungryBox” DeBiedma stated that he believes Nintendo is making a larger push to get rid of Slippi entirely. Content created using Slippi by Beyond the Summit, host of the Smash Summit event series, has vanished without explanation. That could be a death sentence for Melee esports.

HBox, Leffen, Armada blast Nintendo over Big House

Though video game publishers such as Riot Games and Capcom have a strong degree of control over the esports scenes of their titles, Nintendo’s relationship with Smash Bros. esports has historically been either frosty or outright hostile. The most infamous example of this was Nintendo trying to shut down Evo 2013’s Melee tournament, which was one of the biggest of the year. 

Though the company backpedaled after receiving significant backlash, it has done little to improve that relationship in the years since. Nintendo has been accused of orchestrating a number of strange decisions by tournament organizers in the past, including bans on “Smash Box” third-party controllers and the removal of Melee from Evo in 2019. One of Nintendo’s few direct acknowledgements of the Smash pro scene came in July when it condemned the alleged sexual misconduct of several prominent personalities.

Nintendo’s lack of cooperation with Smash Bros. tournament organizers has always been troublesome, but it’s potentially ruinous in 2020. Hosting live events remains untenable. Super Smash Bros. Melee was released in 2001 and has no built-in online support of any kind. Meanwhile, Smash Bros. Ultimate on the Nintendo Switch has such poor netcode that serious competition is nearly impossible.

With many pro Smash players relying on tournaments to stay afloat financially, it’s no surprise they’d be frustrated with Nintendo shutting down one of the few opportunities out there.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

View full profile

Read Also

Kick

Kick’s Eddie Craven Addresses Ongoing KPP Complaints and Viewbotting Khizar Mundia Several Kick streamers have taken to social media to publicly air their grievances about their KPP apparently being reduced. Kick director Ethan Wright recently responded to the complaints, and now Eddie Craven has also discussed the issue for creators. Stake-backed livestreaming platform Kick has made its place in the industry, in large part because of its higher revenue potential. While there have been one-off incidents where Kick has been criticized ...

Fortnite

Leaks Suggest That a Fortnite X One Piece Collaboration May Be Coming Hannan Mundia Fortnite has collaborated with all sorts of franchises over the years, but a potentially leaked collaboration with One Piece may be the largest yet. When it comes to games collaborating with known IPs, it’s borderline impossible to compete with Fortnite. The battle royale game has some insane collaborations under its belt, including one with Kingdom Hearts when the Square Enix IP’s popularity is at an all-time high. However, if recent ...

Kick

FaZe Banks Thinks N3on’s AI Clone Could Be Worth $100M — How AI Is Changing Streaming Khizar Mundia Rangesh “N3on” Mutama may have received widespread backlash following his decision to use an AI model for certain content, but FaZe boss Richard “Banks” Bengtson has compared the streamer to legendary TikToker Khaby Lame. N3on was recently in the limelight after viewers noticed that a GTA 6 streamer NPC resembles him. The Kick streamer wasted no time in recreating the GTA 6 Netflix Extended Look in an IRL livestream, and ...

Twitch

Twitch Is Testing An AI Stream Coach — Here’s How It Works Khizar Mundia Amazon-backed livestreaming platform Twitch is testing a new feature that will act as an AI coach for streamers, giving them personalized feedback to improve. Twitch has been playing around with several experimental features to improve things for its users. One of these includes auto clips, which was a feature that would automatically generate clips from the best moments of a stream. Another is AI-generated summaries of what happened in a ...

Twitch

Kai Cenat Talks Streamer University, Vivet, and Streaming Future Khizar Mundia Kai Cenat recently sat down with The New York Times for an interview. In a wide-ranging discussion, the Twitch streamer talked about what he looks for in Streamer University participants, and also delved into both his Vivet brand, as well as what the future holds. Kai Cenat may have gone on a break following his massively successful Mafiathon 3, but the creator returned with with a bang in Streamer University ...

League of Legends

Riot Games eyes Polymarket and Kalshi for esports sponsorships Michael Hassall Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends and VALORANT is reportedly exploring the protentional of sponsorship deals with prediction market operators including Polymarket and Kalshi, as per reports emerging late last night (Sep. 10). First reported by Cecilia D’Anastasio of Bloomberg, Riot has started conversations with the two top prediction market operators, Kalshi and Polymarket, with a view to one or both of them becoming sponsors within Riot Games’ ...

Slots

This Is How Gates of Olympus 2500 Builds On The Iconic Series Ian John Since the first Gates of Olympus slot hit casinos in 2021, the series has evolved into one of the most recognisable in the Pragmatic Play stable. The combination of scatter wins, tumbling symbols and dramatic multipliers has established a formula that has been followed in a number of sequels and spin-offs. The latest in that series is the Gates of Olympus 2500 slot, but this game takes a slightly more ...