Linus Tech Tips says ‘f*** Nintendo’ and announces spiteful Smash tournament

While live on the WAN Show, Linus announced that he plans to put on a tournament with 201 competitors, just one over the established limit by Nintendo, out of pure spite for their rule changes. Linus gave the gaming giant a heartfelt “f*** you” and the bird as he vowed to break as many of their new rules as humanly possible.

Linus Sebastian’s following with the Linus Tech Tips channel, as well as some of the other offshoot channels like Short Circuit, has given him a massive community of dedicated fans.

And, while LTX 2024 has unfortunately been canceled, past LTXs and other community events have just how many people are willing to show up to events Linus puts on.

In what appears to be a move meant almost purely to spite Nintendo, Linus announced that he plans to use this following and host a 201-person Smash Bros tournament with systems in place to sleight Nintendo in as many ways as “humanly possible”.

Linus announces Smash Bros tournament out of pure spite

Nintendo’s new Smash Bros tournament rules have certainly made waves in the community, and not in a way that’s been positive. Longtime Smash pros were infuriated by Nintendo’s decision, with many wondering why there were rule changes being implemented in the first place.

And, while officially licensed events are in the clear for the most part, the process for applying for a license and how easy it is to get that license is another matter entirely. Non-licensed community events are not only barred from having sponsors, but they can’t even sell food, drinks, or merch, can’t have prizes that exceeds a certain value, can’t have more than 200 in-person participants; the list goes on.

Linus and WAN Show co-host Luke found these rules to be “absurd” and ranted about Nintendo’s decision-making for several minutes. Both remarked that Nintendo’s ruleset feels “illegal”, and that its existence feels “wrong”.

Luke commented on how “dedicated” the Smash community was despite Nintendo working against them as an “antagonistic” company. Linus, meanwhile, called Nintendo’s views on this “short-sighted” and posed the idea of running a tournament of their own.

“We’re hosting a Smash tournament,” both concluded. Linus continued, “When we have the LAN center open, we will host a 201-person Smash tournament. I will break as many of these guidelines as humanly possible, and I challenge Nintendo to come after me. F*** you,” Linus concluded while giving Nintendo the bird.

Linus and Luke explained why they feel it’s a good thing for the Smash Bros community to be self-sustaining, and conceded that some of Nintendo’s rules like restricting usage of copyrighted art for tournament promotion made sense. However, they held no quarter for the rest of the “ridiculous” new set of rules.

While this move is partially to give his community a good time, Linus also seemed determined to put on an event that flies in the face of Nintendo’s incredibly strict, “antagonistic” new ruleset.