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Evo 2013: Nintendo tried to close Super Smash Bros. Melee tourney

Brenna Hillier avatar
News by Brenna Hillier Contributor
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Nintendo tried to shut down the whole Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament at Evo 2013 - not just the livestream.

The revelation comes from Evo co-founder Joey Cuellar, speaking to OneMoreGameTV, as transcribed by Kotaku.

"They were not only trying to shut down the stream, they were trying to shut down the event, the Smash portion of the event," he said.

Evo organisers had to negotiate fiercely with Nintendo's legal team to save the tournament, eventually compromising on the cancelled livestream. Happily, the platform holder later reversed its decision, which many commenters have ascribed to the immediate social media campaign of the intervening hours.

As detailed in Alex's truly excellent piece on Evo 2013, Smash Bros. fans donated a whopping $94,000 to charity in order to secure the game's presence in Las Vegas this year, so if Nintendo had managed to close it down it would have been a hell of a mess all round.

Evo 2013 takes places this weekend.

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