Smash Ultimate players roast Nintendo over “pathetic” tournament prize

Nintendo has once again upset Super Smash Bros Ultimate players after announcing a tournament with a prize and ruleset that many find insulting.

On January 31, February’s NintendoVS Challenge Cup was announced – a Smash Ultimate tournament open to residents in North America. While this may seem good on paper, many aren’t happy with the prize pool or the event’s format.

The relationship between Nintendo and the competitive Smash scene has been a rocky one for many years, with the Japanese gaming behemoth refusing to offer up big prizes like other industry titans and even shutting down events over the use of emulators.

Now, players are making their frustration known, blasting the company’s tournament announcement with sarcastic sass and a myriad of mockery.

Smash players mock Nintendo’s official tournament prize

With the NintendoVS Challenge Cup only awarding the top 8 players MyNintendo Gold points, a Switch carrying case, and a trophy, jacket, and backpack as a grand prize, Smash fans didn’t hold back in their critique.

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Melee pro Linus ‘Pipsqueak’ Nordin responded by joking, “Smash players eatin good tonight” and followed it up by saying he wished he played Ultimate so he could win the “advertisement” backpack.

Meanwhile, Ultimate star Mr.R pointed out how Smash rival “Brawlhalla” took esports seriously in 2021 by offering a $1,000,000 prize while still sarcastically pretending to be interested in Nintendo’s tournament.

Others were more direct in their critique, calling the tournament “pathetic” and “f**king laughable.”

Nintendo’s Smash ruleset blasted by players

To make the event even more offputting to serious players, the official match ruleset includes items, Final Smashes, two stocks and a five-minute time limit – quite a difference from the rules used at actual tournaments.

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“Yall [for real] ain’t hosting tournaments with this ruleset, right?” a player asked including a screenshot of the rules, much to the bewilderment of others.

Interestingly, however, this might be one of the final tournaments to use such a relaxed, casual ruleset. Back in November, Nintendo and Panda Global announced a partnership that would see major support to both the Ultimate and Melee scenes in 2022 with cash prizes.

In the meantime, however, fans will have to live with what Nintendo offers or stick to third-party events.

With more percent knockback-based platform fighters on the way such as Warner Bros’ MultiVersus, it will be fun to see how Nintendo reacts and if more competition can make them more open to supporting esports in a larger way.