Ninja claims Nintendo “ghosted” his $500,000 Smash event offer

Streaming giant Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins claimed that Nintendo “ghosted” him when he tried to set up a $500,000 Smash event with their permission back in 2018. 

While there are plenty of tournament organizers and leagues involved in esports these days, content creators and influencers have also been setting up their own events – with some of them having absolutely massive prize pools.

Twitch star Ninja has worked with Epic Games before to set up his own Fortnite events, but back in late 2018, he teased that he was “cooking” up something for the Smash Bros scene.

It’s been almost four years since Ninja’s initial tweet, and while he also wanted to make something with Red Bull, it was Nintendo who let him down in the end, and he’s now revealed why it all fell through.

The streaming giant was playing as a part of Ludwig’s $1,000,000 poker game when the host asked when he was going to step up to the plate and deliver an event for the Smash community.

• Read More: Joe Rogan can’t believe Logan Paul still hasn’t been paid for Floyd Mayweather fight

“Listen bro, I’ve been waiting. That was on Nintendo, not me,” Ninja said, quickly answering Ludwig’s questions. “That was on Nintendo, not me. Alls I wanted to do was create a massive tournament, and all I wanted to do was juice Evo with like $500k.

“I wanted to get Nintendo’s permission and they ghosted us. I love the fighting community man, I think it’s one of the most passionate out there.”

Timestamp of 5:45:35

Neither Ludwig nor his pal Slime were shocked to hear Ninja’s answer, with the latter stating that Nintendo has “done worse” when it comes to similar situations. “There is ghosting and there is actively (being) against,” Slime added.

With Ninja seemingly still having interest in making something happen, we might see an event pop up down the line, but we’ll just have to wait and see.