Fan-favorite platform fighting Nintendo game Super Smash Bros., in any of its iterations, won't be present in this year's EVO 2022.

It’s been two years since we’ve last seen an EVO event take place and it looks like it's finally making a comeback. The Evolution Championship Series will make its triumphant return on August 5-7, 2022. Sadly, Nintendo decided to withdraw from the event, which means Super Smash Bros. won’t be at EVO 2022 in any of its iterations. 

EVO broke the news on Twitter stating “Super Smash Bros. will not be making a return appearance”. To clarify, it means that both Melee and Ultimate are no longer going to be a part of EVO 2022. Since 2007, Super Smash Bros. provided a lot of historic and iconic moments in the fighting game event. While this comes off as heartbreaking news, EVO is hopeful to reconnect with Nintendo in the future. 

Nintendo didn’t necessarily clarify why exactly they decided to withdraw from EVO 2022, but, we have a couple of speculations. One major reason could be Nintendo’s recent partnership with Panda Global back in 2021. Panda Global made the shocking announcement about their partnership with Nintendo on Twitter back in November 2021. Both parties teamed up in order to create new tournaments for both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Ultimate. We should be expecting Panda Global’s first-ever Super Smash Bros. circuit later this year. 

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Another huge factor that we think played a part in Nintendo’s decision could be the EVO 2020 controversy. Former EVO CEO Joey Cuellar received accusations for sexual misconduct which led to the cancellation of the event. We’re assuming that Nintendo doesn’t want to represent a brand that participated in such actions. While the issue took place over a year and a half ago, it’ll take time for everyone to forget it ever happened. 

Whatever the case may be, all we can do is respect Nintendo’s decision at this point, as the Big N's decision has some heavy finality in it. We can only look forward to and be glad of the Super Smash Bros. tournaments we're getting from other events organized by other groups, including Panda Global. The new series of tournaments will take place in North America sometime in 2022.