Riptideis approaching. Previously known as Smash N Splash, Riptide is a 3-day convention featuring tournaments forSuper Smash Bros.,Rivals of Aether, andSplatoon 2at the combo hotel/water park Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. It’s a major destination for competitiveSuper Smash Bros.fans. Few look forward to it as much as fans ofSuper Smash Bros. BrawlmodProject+, however. Riptide’s hosted tournaments forProject+(or rather its predecessorProject M) for years. Unfortunately, it seems Nintendo has had enough and has forced theProject+tournament’s cancellation.
In a message shared on Twitter, Riptide confirmed thatNintendo of Americahad contacted the convention about its planned tournament and events forProject+. What Nintendo said in this conversation isn’t confirmed, but Riptide says that as a result of the conversation allProject+events at Riptide had been canceled. Further, Riptide will no longer be providing stations at the convention whereProject+will be playable casually.
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Nintendo has not officially commented on the matter and likely won’t in a public capacity. This isn’t abnormal for Nintendo, however, as the company aggressively targets fanprojects revolving around Nintendo IP. It’s unclear why Nintendo chose 2021 to shut down theProject+tournament at Riptide, as it has allowedProject Mtournaments annually at Smash N Splash going back through 2015.
To be clear, Riptide is still moving forward with the majority of its planned tournaments.Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,Super Smash Bros. Melee,Rivals of Aether, andSplatoon 2tournaments remain scheduled. It’s only Riptide’s plans surroundingProject+that have been canceled, and it was likely only done so to ensure that the other tournaments could go on with official support.
For those unfamiliar,Project+is an overhaul mod forSuper Smash Bros. Brawlexpanding on theProject Mmod.Project Mdevelopment ended in 2015, soProject+was started by those who wanted to continue building on the idea of creating a custom, finely tunedSuper Smash Bros.experience. The firstProject+Riptide tournament was originally planned for 2020, but was canceled due to the then-flourishing COVID-19 pandemic.
Obviously, many involved with Riptide and thecompetitiveSuper Smash Bros.sceneis disappointed with this news. Riptide is going to be reaching out to convention attendees registered forProject+events and will be offering refunds as necessary. Odds are the community will do its best to make up for the situation and will host unofficial side-tournaments as they’re able, so that Riptide can avoid drawing Nintendo’s ire any more than it already has.
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