Organizers of the Smash World Tour have announced its 2022 championship tournament and its 2023 series of events have been canceled following a notice from Nintendo telling them they could no longer operate their tournament.

"It is with an unbelievably heavy heart that we must announce that both the upcoming Smash World Tour Championships, as well as the 2023 Smash World Tour must be canceled,” organizers wrote in a Medium post.

The upcoming Smash World Tour Championships and the entirety of the 2023 Smash World Tour must be cancelled.

The Smash World Tour boasted over 6,400 live events worldwide according to organizers with an attendance of over 325,000.

The statement accuses Panda CEO Alan Bunney of sabotaging Smash World Tour’s organization efforts despite an ongoing discussion between Smash World Tour and Nintendo about a potential license for themselves and where the company “made it clear that Panda’s partnership was not exclusive[.]”.

The organizers dispute this in their blog saying, “Our Nintendo rep opened by letting us know that they are being asked to deliver the news that going forward, Nintendo expects us to only operate with a commercial license, and that we would not be granted one for the upcoming Championships or any activity in 2023.” The organizers say they received this notice in writing as well.