Streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has disclosed that Nintendo ghosted him over a proposed investment in a Super Smash Bros tournament at EVO back in 2019.
The information came out during an almost nine-hour poker live stream featuring several other prominent YouTube and Twitch personalities, including MrBeast, Ludwig and xQc.
According to Ninja, the deal was so close to being done that he felt comfortable posting a tweet alluding to it, only to be left with egg on his face.
Nintendo Ghosts Ninja Over Super Smash Bros Tournament
Responding to fellow streamer Ludwig Ahgren asking when he was going to help out the Super Smash Bros community, Blevins initially responded: “listen bro, I have been waiting”, before adding “that was on Nintendo, not me”.
He went on to clarify: “All I wanted to do was create a massive tournament, I literally wanted to just juice EVO, like, $500k and I wanted to get Nintendo’s permission and they just, they ghosted us.”
Ninja also added: “I love the fighting community man, I think it’s one of the most passionate communities out there.”
About the Tweet alluding to the investment, he said: “I get memed about it all the time bro, but like, at the end of the day, I sat there in front of my team and I was like, I want to make this happen, big money, and they were like alright, and Nintendo just never ever got back to us.”
Ahgren replied suggesting that others have found themselves in similar situations with Nintendo, causing Ninja to add that they had seemed interested at first, which is what gave him the confidence to tweet about it.
Despite the fact that people still quote that particular tweet making fun of him for seemingly failing to deliver, Blevins doesn’t see the point in taking it down or posting a follow-up, questioning: “is it even worth tweeting that I don’t (have something cooking up) anymore?”.
Since this deal fell through in 2019, Nintendo has since partnered with Panda Global to launch a Super Smash Bros pro circuit and, more recently, pulled Super Smash Bros From EVO to much fan disappointment.
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