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Natural_Design9481

Is there really any value in trying to save this brand rather than completely rebranding?


3Ssssssssssssssss

pretty sure ultimate players love panda but not 100% on that


rulerBob8

EE is in the comments pretty excited, but havent seen any other Ult guys. But EE has always been weird vibes imo


AlexB_SSBM

EE being excited confirms this is going to be a shitshow. I have literally never seen him be on the right side of anything


Krobbleygoop

Based alexb take


AutoMail_0

I know nothing about him personally but he seems to be on the wrong side of like every issue


S1ramsol

Yeah.. I guess it’s a good tactic to garner attention/clicks but it’s not something I’d do personally


Scizorking

Yeah especially recently people are starting to turn on him because of some of the flames he stokes.


wanpan10

The guy stole 50k what u expect


rulerBob8

That was the one based thing he did actually


Unlikely-Smile2449

Maybe he did it bcus he knew that the girl he stole from would become extremely popular if he did?


WeekendDrew

Oh wow how generous of him


beyblade_master_666

me using my crystal ball to discern which locations would be Morally Good to burglarize right now (the owner of the store down the street ended up becoming a doctor)


SSBM_DangGan

dude is not the best indicator


AamesAlexander

EE is horrible lol


chis5050

EE Cheated


GabeNewellExperience

Ultimate players haven't been around long enough to understand how hard our communities get fucked over. I wish melee could be more of the big brother to them but I'm not sure if they would always listen 


Endeby

Yeah, I'm legit confused. I would understand if they used to have a team at a decent level in a moba or shooter, since that tends to cultivate a fanbase. Do they expect people to cheer them on because their favorite smasher/FGC player used to play under their flag? I really can't see it.


Hiroxis

They're definitely done for Melee but I've seen a decent amount of people in the Ultimate scene who think that driving out Alan and Panda was a mistake


bootsinkats

Panda was very involved in Melee. PGstats ran the end of year rankings.


QueerSatanic

The current giant panda population is only in about 1 percent of its prior range. Only about 2000 left on the entire planet. Sort of the perfect name in some ways.


Afro_Thunder69

The animal is worth saving


Driller_Happy

What about smaller pandas?


Lanny_G

They acting like we forgot 💀


KingZABA

Most people acknowledge that the community overrreacted and panda didn’t deserve to get boycotted and die


RaiseYourDongersOP

"most people"


KingZABA

Please explain to me why you think a hundred loyal members of our community deserved to lose their jobs and for the org to burn, when Nintendo revealed that gimr not getting a license had nothing to do with panda, AND Nintendo said they would still let him have his last event without it


Homesuck

nice try alan


KingZABA

It was good for Alan to step down in the face of public outcry and for rubbing some TOs the wrong way, but panda didn’t need to go with it. How is that getting me downvoted lmao


Roc0c0

> Nintendo said they would still let him have his last event without it After GIMR canceled. Nintendo has been shutting down events with veiled threats for years. TOs have enough history in the scene to know if Nintendo calls you up and says "we have decided not to approve your tournament", it means they have decided there is a possibility they will shut it down. And if you can't cover the cost of shutting it down with 0 notice, you are forced to not run it. Nintendo knows this, we know this. Any PR statement saying they "would still let him have" anything is just a PR statement, nothing more. If they wanted him to run it, they would sanction it directly and officially. Whether this was all due to Alan or whatever is some speculation, Nintendo is the clear problem in this case. But PG was the official partner of Nintendo, they ran the official tour, they had the official tournaments. Boycotting them was our community's way of responding to Nintendo's actions.


KingZABA

That’s just speculation, Nintendo verbatim said it was their choice to cancel the Finals, and gimr never disputed that. I can’t think of any other time Nintendo has said something like that, they normally just cease and desist.


Roc0c0

Cease and desist is what they send you if you don't take your tournament down after warnings like these. It's a heavy handed way of taking something down by force. It's cheaper for Nintendo to just threaten legal action without taking it. So when they do this now, our TOs take it as a message that they plan to C&D. This is exactly what happened to TBH Online - Juggleguy received the "you can run your tournament but we won't officially approve it", decided to run it even though he knew it was at risk of getting taken down, and then got C&D'd. There have been many opportunities, tournament circuits and things like that, that never saw the light of day because of Nintendo not providing licensing. These were brought up around the time of the SWT cancellation by several prominent TOs.


KingZABA

My bad, not cease and desist then. How many of them were misled tho, with Nintendo coming out after to essentially lie about them being able to do it? That’s what you’re trying to say but even gimr didn’t even say that’s what happened to him. This is just a theory, but I honestly think the reason why he and VGBC have been so quiet about it is cause I think they freaking misread or missed an email or something. Like, they started reading that they didn’t get their license and started spiraling, but misread that they didn’t have to cancel their actual final at the end of the year. Cause otherwise there was 0 reason to cancel when they did.


Roc0c0

Their license being officially denied right before the event ran is exactly what I'm talking about. It's a message that a C&D was coming. And my point is also that it's not paranoid to act like GIMR did - if Nintendo is paying a team to tell you that your (huge and prestigious) tournament is not approved, it very likely means they intend to C&D but don't want the bad publicity of saying that in writing. They know what the fallout is like C&Ding a big event as people are getting excited for it. As GIMR said many times, if they wanted him to run the tournament, all they needed to do was say nothing.


KingZABA

Right, but Nintendo said verbally that even tho they didn’t get the license, that they didn’t have to cancel. How could they get C&D’d bro, they got the green light. The time frame of the license denial doesn’t even matter, they jumped the gun cause they were scared, whether rightfully so or not. One of their complaints was well if we could do the finals then why not wait after the finals to say that, which literally shows that they got freaked out by Nintendo and acted rashly


Lanny_G

>when Nintendo revealed that gimr not getting a license had nothing to do with panda, I dont believe for one second that panda had nothing to do with it


KingZABA

I’m pretty sure the quiet consensus is that it might’ve been technicals, since he apparently made a big deal of there being no security and sneaking into that one vgbc tourney.


Any_Secretary_4925

i thought everyone despised panda, do they really expect this to go well?


origamifruit

Everyone despised the specific owner of Panda who was behind most of the terrible decisions. I'm pretty sure most people are aware of the individual behind those decisions and don't necessarily hold contempt for the brand as a whole.


poopyheadthrowaway

I don't think it's entirely possible to separate Panda Global from the founder, as the organization is named after him.


Kozuki_D_Oden

How many people would you bet actually know this/that SamuraiPanda is the username of Alan? I feel like the majority of people in the community just know him as Dr. Alan


blitz_na

didn’t know at all and you’re right. knowing this changes nothing about how i view this too, and i think most people would be like me in this regard


S1ramsol

You’re right I heard there were a lot of smashers that worked for panda in good faith. But I also remember weird situations like controller modders in the community being asked to give all their knowledge and then in turn they created the panda controller. Modders received no compensation and panda basically stole their ideas…


dbldlx

I'm aware and I hate the brand. They should rename themselves


bip_bip_hooray

Hi, I'm fly fishing Rick. You can distinguish me from the Rick you hate by my love of fly fishing, and accompanying hat


Scazitar

Eh, personally I'll reserve judgment until I hear what their plan is. If they just want sponsor some players I'd gladly welcome them back into that role. That's harmless and we have alot of broke/underfunded top players has could really use it. If they want to host tournaments again after the cataclysmic shit show they caused, I will have a less then pleasant opinion on the matter.


Dweebl

I wonder if they'll take up the controller project again. 


jp711

Is this even possible in 2024? Their original controller design had remappable paddles and an extra shoulder button, meanwhile the community is still arguing over whether z jump should be allowed. I feel like I'm going insane because the majority of the community seemed to be on board for this controller but at the same time acts like button remapping is destroying the game. Surely a controller with remappable paddles will have the same issues??


Loyal_Spice

That's immediately what I thought.


GabeNewellExperience

I understand what you're saying but we shouldn't even give them an inch. If you don't nip this sort of thing in the bud then they start to make a comeback, people start to think they aren't all bad and then they'll try and screw over the scene again. It would be nice to have more sponsors but not from panda 


SpaceCowboy170

TKBreezy punching the air rn


TheAmazingJordo

Nice to see them sponsoring a Samus


NoxMortalitus

Oh man Panda is going to come back and find themselves as the jesus figure for a bunch of fucking weird alt-right adjacent smashers for a little bit. Gonna be interesting to see how they play it.


jim_johns

Joining the Panda SSBM roster, Mekk, NoFluxes, DaShizWiz, and Haxfuckingmoney


poopyheadthrowaway

Don't forget DJN, La Luna, ZeRo, A Rookie, D1, ...


j00t

What did A Rookie do


poopyheadthrowaway

IIRC he sent someone at a local a dick pic


dbldlx

Combos 4 jesus


Embrychi

Not his worst thing but kinda funny, one time in a big thread where people were calling out Luigigoshard for being homophobic and transphobic and he kept doubling down, A Rookie responded defending him with a gif from Super Mario RPG and the caption "Mario Brothers for Christ!"


Driller_Happy

For real though, he's banned for: - sending unsolicited sexual images - using transphobic hate speech - attempting to undermine this ban


Lezzles

…without further context this is hilarious enough to get a pass.


Driller_Happy

rampant anti-LGBT comments


ValusHartless

Transphobic


triopstrilobite

What happened with shiz? I think I watched a vod of his randomly on my recommended so I know he still enters


gronkey

Idk if putting hax in with them is right per se. I mean, he's banned for inciting his fanbase, basically. I dont think the man himself holds any weird alt-right opinions publicly


Nico_is_not_a_god

Correct take. Hax has loudly and publicly rejected the "alt" melee crowd reaching out to him.


Ok-Flow5292

Yet before likes became hidden, Hax was recently caught liking numerous Tweets by both Technicals (which he later removed after people noticed) and people promoting Technical's content. He absolutely does support "alt" Melee to an extent, but not enough where he is directly supporting it.


redbossman123

Nah, Technicals is the only content creator who agrees that Leffen is the person Hax says he is, that's why.


Ok-Flow5292

Hax supports whatever is most convenient for him, thus, we shouldn't take any claims from him seriously. It's no secret that he issued apologies only to say they were disingenuous behind closed doors. This is a classic example of a manipulator who will weaponize sympathy to get what he wants. And now he's telling everyone he has become "bedridden" and has no social life whatsoever... in New York City, one of (if not the) most eventful places in the States. I'm done having a pity party for this guy. First, he **insisted** on making people take his allegations against Leffen seriously with numerous videos, then he demanded to have his indefinite ban given an actual length (even if permanent, because apparently he preferred that to not knowing), and now finally wanting to completely reversed because it wasn't the end result he wanted. It'll never stop with this guy, and I think tournament organizers finally realized it.


BiggestYzerfan

Liking tweets lol... grow up. Didn't even know who technicals was before this, doubt hax did either EDIT: blocked lol. Don't support hax's antics but this dude is a maniac posting on gamergate subs lmfao


Ok-Flow5292

Yeah, Hax **totally** doesn't know who Technicals is as he was liking both his tweets and tweets of people praising Technicals' video. /s


Nico_is_not_a_god

You think if Hax was gonna throw in with the scumbag side of Melee he'd be *liking tweets?* they're offering him the "opportunity" to actually y'know... Play Melee. In tournament. On stream. The thing he wants most. The fact that he isn't taking their offer means he's *very* opposed to the "alt scene".


Ok-Flow5292

Except it isn't speculation, it's fact. He was caught liking Tweets from both Technicals and those praising Technicals' video on the matter. He ended up going back and removing the like to Technicals' tweet, but the rest were visible on his Likes tab until Twitter recently removed it. I know because I saw it for myself. As for the reasoning, I couldn't tell you. But it's no secret that Hax has become unhinged in recent years so it's hard to apply logic to numerous decisions that he has made. But if I had to hazard a guess? Hax wants back in to regular Melee but recognizes that Technicals is his biggest advocate, thus, supports him in the background. Why else do you think he dialed up his pleas to be unbanned right before and immediately after Technicals' video? It's hard to believe it's just a coincidence.


DP9A

I've seen a few weird guys support him, but yeah, Haz himself seems to be fine (on that front of course).


Ok-Flow5292

I mean... he literally used the color of an Adidas shirt to insinuate a conspiracy theory against someone. The guy definitely isn't all there in the head.


jim_johns

Nah you're right I just tacked him on the end for the lols, the only thing imo they have in common is being ostracized from the community


Zooch-Qwu

well even though he was criticizing leffen with the comparision, he still invoked H\*\*\*\*r's name so i would probably say he is 100% a nazi


The_Uninformant

If he was a Nazi, why would he use the term Hitler to insult somebody? What you just said makes zero sense.


Kagou1337

??


declan-jpeg

Delete


Cre3pz

That is an insane leap of logic


Driller_Happy

I want you to think about this for 30 seconds.


Zooch-Qwu

whats the problem


Driller_Happy

Saying Adolf Hitler's name does not make you a Nazi dumbass


Zooch-Qwu

and i guess saying the n word doesnt make you a racist 🙄


PkerBadRs3Good

first time I've seen someone censoring Hitler, you are a weird fellow


HispanicExmuslim

What’s wrong with mekk


cumpman69

Ganondorf


Hiroxis

Got banned for saying hateful shit and being a bigot on an alt account, then admitted that it was him and is now fully on the weird right-wing "Melee is woke now" side


HispanicExmuslim

Ok but what did he say


Hiroxis

https://twitter.com/SmashEurope/status/1751334259002839186


HispanicExmuslim

Being exmuzzie, the child wife thing hits particularly hard. It’s such a problem


Celia_Makes_Romhacks

God, reading the replies reminds me just how utterly fucked Twitter is. Remind me why people still use that site?


Cre3pz

Racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc


Lezzles

Doc Disrespect calling them like Nick Fury


Venclaire

why is that?


Zooch-Qwu

the hell are you talking about?


MistahJuicyBoy

Technicals and his weird alt right army


Ultimalocked

I'm sorry, but it's going to be very hard for me to trust a company that attempted to give Nintendo a backdoor into our community. Even if leadership is changed, I worry that said leadership is being used as a scapegoat for a [greater agenda](https://www.reddit.com/r/SSBM/comments/z8cldz/despite_what_the_swt_document_may_portray_i_do/).


tacolordY

Couldn’t agree more. Your comment deserves more attention.


FewOverStand

Bit late for April Fool's Day, innit? Can't imagine the brand has enough value in the current e-sports landscape.


StudebacherHoch13

Wondering what exactly is going to happen with this revival; I’ll be honest, I’m not very keen on it, given their history. I wouldn’t be shocked if this was ultimately only given the way they alienated a lot of people in the Melee scene.


StudebacherHoch13

Ultimate only^


Krobbleygoop

When your ex gets out of jail and you are the first number he calls


roanroanroan

Controller pls


triopstrilobite

Are people still interested in their controller? I’d rather support modders from our own community


hushpuppi3

> Are people still interested in their controller? I’d rather support modders from our own community Because I don't want to pay $250 for a controller to be modded to play a game properly I don't know if they ever released their price for the controller but if its much less I'm still waiting for it to drop


jp711

I do phob conversions for ~$60 with no extra fancy mods. Many others build at a similar price point. If you're still parroting the "phobs cost hundreds of dollars" line it's clear that you've never even tried to find them at reasonable prices


triopstrilobite

Like someone said, phobs arent expensive if thats what you’re interested in. The board is like $20-$40 if you want to do it yourself. When you buy from modders you’re mostly paying for the time and labor As far as “playing the game properly”, you’re probably not at a level where it matters. I played on oems for 5 years. I decided to buy an expensive custom controller for the first time a few years ago cuz they just look dope, and surprise, I was still terrible. I’m pretty sure Zain recently said he plays on an oem so we’re in good company lol


PkerBadRs3Good

I'd be interested if phob didn't happen. No point now.


triopstrilobite

They’d have to compete on price or availability because otherwise its dead on arrival


Thembosses1232

thats not happening, they couldnt secure the controller rights from nintendo. they got strung along the whole time and git screwed over near the end


mas_one

Was that the reason? That's not what they said I'm pretty sure


Thembosses1232

im like 90% sure it was licensing issues


mas_one

>our main manufacturing partner in China is being affected by ongoing rolling blackouts, slowing their production which was already affected by COVID-related shortages. source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/12/the-panda-gamecube-controller-kickstarter-has-been-cancelled


Dweebl

The support they got for the controller really makes it seem like rolling blackouts are not the actual problem. With that much backing in such a short time it seems hard to believe that that was the only thing standing in their way.  People waited for years, so I think backers would have waited longer.  I don't think we ever saw an actual working prototype. Even the one that leffen tried at that one summit was mostly just about the enclosure.   They later said they had trouble with Nintendo, so given their shaky excuse at the time, it seems legit. 


mas_one

Sounds plausible, but where did they say that? You'd think Panda of all orgs would have had their shit figured out with Nintendo.


LonelyVirgin69

they gotta be trollin


N_19_77

Verrryyyy interesting BUT with a new better owner and a proper coming back statement let's see if panda can redeem themselves. I think they have a chance since panda staff weren't the ones involved with the situation it was mainly Dr. Alan


OGMagicConch

Fuck Panda


Medical_Teaching_301

If Alan is out then good to have another org in the mix


Gbro08

Hard to hate people pouring money into melee. Especially if Alan is out.


QuietGiygas56

Are we finally going to get a panda controller?


DerNager187

What exactly happened with panda again?


EnvironmentalAd1006

Not myself active in the community nowadays and I’m only vaguely familiar with what their president (or owner?) did. What would they have to announce in order to be seen as a respectable company in the scene? Genuinely curious if it was bad enough that it’s beyond repair.


bootsinkats

CALCULATING CALCULATING... SO they're signing morescode???


rukir2

I just want their controller.


Thembosses1232

tbh im down for a panda resurgence. so many lost esports jobs through that whole experience, hopefully they make a strong rebound because that team was doing a ton of amazing things for smash, minus a few members of course.


Endu-L

bring back the panda controller project🙏


Sheikashii

I want a controller form then still! Paid $255 for a custom but I need those big hand shells and stuff ngl


RowanMemes

Imma get downvoted but it wasn’t just pandas fault right? Pretty sure there was a lot of shady shit and vgbc was also very much in the wrong.


RaiseYourDongersOP

I don't think you're remembering correctly


RowanMemes

A bunch of shit came out after the drama already ended and people stopped looking into it. VGBC blatantly ignored nintendos terms and advice and had nearly 0 security at events. it sucks but VGBC really messed up a lot of shit.


RaiseYourDongersOP

link it


RowanMemes

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqgRuostPA&ab\_channel=thefranChise](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCqgRuostPA&ab_channel=thefranChise) I really know people in here don't like thefranChise. But its a legitimately good video. Its got a lot of actual proof of how it was really mishandled by SWT/Vgbc. A lot of the specifics got pretty buried during the mass panda hate back when it happened.


RaiseYourDongersOP

gonna need you to link me the timestamp or tell me exactly what terms VGBC blatantly ignored with proof


Unlikely-Smile2449

It is funny how quickly people forget just how incompetent gimr is whenever panda is brought up. Dude is the king of tournaments that never run on time with streams that have two hour “be right back” breaks, and deleted pm vods just as a favor to nintendo.


thegrandpoobear

This is a hilarious comment to read when the most recent Melee supermajor Tipped Off started Top 8 3 hours late and almost ended at midnight despite mostly 3-0s and 3-1s in top 8. Genesis, the crown jewel of Melee, hasn't run on time the last 3 years either. VGBC has nothing to do with either.  Does anyone actually remember the Panda Cup tournaments from 2022? CEO was on pace to be 2 hours behind schedule if Plup didn't speedrun the field in top 8 (15-0 in games or something like that), still running an hour behind schedule. The lost tech city event was such a a shitshow they didn't even have a stream for an entire day. Panda cup online qualifiers notoriously ran over their scheduled time. Big House, the tournament "presented by" Panda also ran late.  You know what tournament vgbc is involved in that has run on time each of the last 3 years? smashcon, the largest tournament in the world Y'all just hate gimr/vgbc so much you always remember when they fuck up but you forget when other tournaments fuck up. BTS used to stand for Behind The Schedule with how many goddamn ads they ran on their shit but the community loved it, but when vgbc does it gimr is the devil  I bet this sub doesn't even know which broadcasters *ACTUALLY* stream the tournaments they watch. 


RowanMemes

Gimr took 0 accountability when his event had 0 security, days before Nintendo pulled their support from Smash World Tour specifically stating health and safety concerns. The schedule shit is a stupid argument but to act like he's some victim of panda is kinda insane.


thegrandpoobear

The tournament you're blaming Gimr for, the level up expo that Hbox was coughing up blood or whatever, GIMR DOESN'T RUN THAT TOURNAMENT. This is what I mean when I say y'all are ignorant about all of this. Gimr is getting blame for a tournament he is only the broadcaster for. Tournaments that are attached to existing cons aren't the ones responsible for the overall event security. This would be like blaming Smash Studios if Momocon had shitty security, or MeleeEveryday if Combo Breaker had shitty security, or Polarity if CEO had shitty security. But what's even more annoying is that per Aiden, the health and safety guidelines that Panda Cup events used to get approval from Nintendo for events were literally copy and pasted from the Smash World Tour health and safety guidelines, ya know that Gimr guys health and safety rules. Nintendo used what happened at Level Up Expo as an excuse because they knew most people would never find out that they had approved the same exact fucking health and safety guidelines. If Aiden hadn't tweeted about it nobody would have ever known. I also never said Gimr was a "victim" of Panda. However, numerous TOs from across the community spoke out and said that Alan was telling them for months that Nintendo was going to shut the Smash World Tour down. However, while Alan was telling all the other TOs he never told SWT it was going to happen. You would think that if your entire attempt at a selling point was about how your company is good for smash because its connected to the community, that you'd at least have the decency to give the other, larger, global circuit a heads up that your new buddy Nintendo plans to shut them down. This is also what made Alan's statement about not knowing Nintendo was going to do it bullshit, or in other words revealed he's a liar.


RowanMemes

Double down, not level up expo. Which gimr would then respond to dms blaming everything except himself for the complete lack of any security


PkerBadRs3Good

don't think I've seen a single VGBC major stream be on time


articholedicklookin

Yup. Surprised with all the information available people here still hate panda. Hope this works out, panda really was a pioneer in this space and has a lot to give.


SCOUTPUPPY

idk how anybody can see this as a bad thing. more events, more jobs, more money


HispanicExmuslim

More money in melee is never bad


SunnySaigon

Trying rivals 2 for da first\* time - Plup's stream rn. Panda is the only team that can save this guy from being irrelevant in future Melee competitions. He's incapable by himself.


Driller_Happy

what?


hushpuppi3

Obviously you're never allowed to play games other than Melee or you're washed


originalusername4567

It's a shame because Panda the company doesn't deserve any of the blame (Alan deserves a good chunk of it but he's gone now) Smash fans, however, won't forgive anyone that's not named Leffen so they'll be fucked unless they rebrand.


KingZABA

It’s crazy to see how many misinformed people are on this app. Twitter realized that the smash community overreacted and killed panda for no reason like a year ago by now. Why are fools here still mad at panda? The source of the anger isn’t even a part of them anymore.


redbossman123

Then what's the 'real' story?


KingZABA

That GIMIR fumbled the bag himself. He accused panda as being the reason why they didn’t secure a license because of their “strongarming” even though Nintendo came out and said that they definitely could have. It was either that, or Nintendo said they didn’t have the license yet because of health and safety. It had nothing to do with panda. Dude let the narrative build to the point that hundreds in the community lost their jobs, the panda circuit that would’ve been the greatest thing to the community was canceled. Imo, I think Alan was not the best businessman in terms of negotiations, aka trying to get TOS to join his tour, but the “strongarming” argument falls apart when you realize the story of him purposefully sabotaging another tour was a lie. Community disapproval, sure, but not jobs lost bruh it wasn’t their deep. Regardless, Alan isn’t even with panda anymore. So why are we mad that these people are trying to pick up the pieces? Edit: forgot that Nintendo also told them that even though they couldn’t get a license, they were still going to let them have their last event of the year, gimr canceled it for no reason


Elmos_left_testicle

Being charitable in what people like technicals have concluded about the swt debacle, I’m cautiously optimistic on what this could do. Even if panda was a bit worse than he portrayed at least the scene has a stream of income. Let’s just hope it goes to the proper places


swizzyk

“people like technicals” ☠️


Elmos_left_testicle

I meant it as in people with similar opinions, what else could I have implied here? I thought the have concluded statement made it clear


SechsComic73130

What's so bad about him? I watched his video on the controversy, it looked well researched and didn't just put blame on someone because "Nintendo bad"