Nintendo Strips Team Jackpot Of Splatoon 3 World Championship Win

GOOD. F jackpot for real

I knew it! Those insensitive tweets about Octolings would haunt them some day!

The sad thing is this may encourage Nintendo to not do competitions and championships anymore. Why risk giving prizes out to racists when you could prizes to no one?

Man this is just sad to see people acting so childishly over skin color in this day and age. Get mature. Be better.

@jump
And people wonder why Nintendo has distanced themselves from most Smash tournaments.

This is why.

Welcome to america nintendo

@JR150 Actually it's because the old heads at Nintendo view any unauthorized copyright in Japan, even unofficial tournaments, as leeches off of their property. And they spread that globally.

Which is pretty dumb and hurts the passionate part of the brand that's gonna be with you through thick and thin.

Man, that this is still a thing in 2024 is so sad.
Here in Amsterdam they did a public campaign against racism a couple of months ago. I was in shock to see how this is till needed. Nowadays it's the Gay Pride, and it also saddens me how this is also still greatly needed.

If we would just treat each other like brothers and sisters the world would be such a nice place. You don't have to love everybody but why spread hate shamelessly and continuously.

🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

This is why you have to do due diligence before adding anyone from your community into the game.

It's probably why games like Fortnite or Minecraft Story mode despite having popular people like youtubers, celebrities, competitive players, etc. either rarely or never have issues like this.

So we had World Championship of 2024 for Splatoon 3, but no Champions for it second place and such as?!

Can you imagine what it would be like in real sports if someone said something that offended someone and so their team was stripped of a World Cup, Super Bowl, World Series win, etc?

“We can’t let these guys win, one of them is a jerk!”

@Hck That's right friend, your example is very much the same as an entire team taking part in turbo racism publicly for years under the pretense of "it's a joke".

To be honest, this feels like a symptom of our culture.

We have normalised vulgar language to the point where the f word is now a common filler word and being rude and abusive to people are common place.

These guys are making racist jokes and using slurs against different groups and that is wrong, but it’s not much different to the vulgar speech that has been normalised and accepted by society.

We need to clean up our speech in general because, quite frankly, it’s all becoming ugly.

Also, when you are competing. You can be respectful to your opponents.

Fair play. Good sportsmanship. Pleasant speech. All of these things we are losing and it’s sad.

Well deserved!

@Nintendemon I never said that racism was a joke. What I meant was in physical sports, players often hurl the most horrible, nasty, offensive, ugly thing at each other but the game goes on. I can’t recall a professional sporting event, other than e-sports, where a winner has been stripped because of something somebody said.

Normally don't care about esports, but yikes. I wonder if the new banner will show them flying away in their ghost forms? They've pretty much been splatted by Nintendo.

Much as they deserve this retribution, I really hope they all learn from this, become better people, and manage to still actually lead their lives and not have some stupid mistakes made in their younger years haunt them for the rest of their lives. Like I think some of these people aren't even adult yet? Bad as these mistakes are, they should be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them.

Good response from Nintendo whatever the case. I'm gonna use the updated banner for a while when it happens just to show my support of good response to these kinds of things.

@Hck Look at Argentina winning the Copa America and their racist chants afterwards. They haven't been stripped of their title. And Fernandez at least apologised for his behaviour.

I don't know if Nintendo gave these Splatoon players a chance to make an apology? Only goes to show that e-sports are mostly about marketing.

I’m kinda surprised it took Nintendo a month to respond to this. It came to the point where I thought there was a chance it was going to get blown over. Thank goodness it’s not and everything they had fought for is taken away. Competitive Splatoon brings the community together and it was fun to see that during the championship.

i really want nintendo to be more open to its competitive community cause people who dedicate that much time to your game and its competition is worth supporting, but i also hate how theyve been proving themselves right in distancing itself from them

@Hck Yes, I agree with you. They're behavior is unacceptable, but it has nothing to do with their skill in the game.

They won and they should get the prize. I would have understood if they had been disqualified from any future event

@GarlicGuzzler That's a product from a company, not a person. Completely different.

@Yosher It would be nice if people were like this, but I really have never seen a racist change his mind because of a punishment.
If anything they get even more racist. Or in the best case scenario they just keep themselves from saying anything in public.

GOOD.
nintendo did the right thing here.

because not only did members of team jackpot say absolutely vile things, but the members that didn't allowed it to happen.

racism has no place anywhere, but especially not in a game rated E for Everyone.

@GoldenSunRM Yeah, that's how it usually goes, but people can change. Plus as said, these people are still young. Maybe they just didn't understand the full gravity of what they were saying, but now that all this happened, they most certainly do understand, and HOPEFULLY they will learn from it.

Maybe I'm just too good of faith though.

"I know a lot of people looked up to us, Jackpot, and me personally."

Ummmm ... get over yourself. We all play games. You're just like us, except racist.

I just wish that the world would be nicer to each other, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to happen.

Everyone forgets normal etiquette too frequently, and there are so many things that influence that, like some of the pop culture media we consume (like movies and shows, especially ones that focus on being super crass) and social media, the latter where you can pretty much have no consequences to what you say, including hateful and racist comments, which just makes people believe that they have the freedom to spout awful nonsense, and the lack of moderation on some sites just makes the issue worse. I cannot tell you how many questionable, rude and racist comments I have come across on Instagram posts and reels, and never have I ever really seen anyone on there get the consequences served to them thanks to the app having garbage moderation and there being a huge amount of vulgar people on there that seems to overpower the kinder people, and I can’t imagine how much worse Twitter/X is. It also pretty much just normalizes vulgar and offensive behavior and will make them think that what they are saying and doing is fine, but some people do know full well that what they are doing and acting like is wrong and want to get away with it, which just makes it worse, and I’m assuming these guys are like that. Almost every single person I’ve seen be racist is fully aware of their bad behavior and is almost never sorry when they get caught for it. They are only sorry because they don’t want to get caught and still want to be able to say anything they want. Basically, it’s just an unapologetic apology.

I think free speech is good and is very important, and everyone should be free to express opinions on anything they want. However, hate speech is harmful and should not be allowed, as it of course just allows bad behaviors that encourage inequality between groups of people, but who am I kidding? People like these idiots who express this kind of racist hate speech and slurs almost never choose to stop and they always want to keep getting away with saying the same vulgar and nasty opinions and rhetoric and not improving upon themselves as people or increasing their empathy.

It’s so low brow. Seriously who takes pot shots at Black people for simply existing? Imagine being so concerned about an entire group of peoples/cultures (as we aren’t a monolith) that don’t care about you/know you are alive except for scrapping the bottom of the barrel racism. Absolutely insane.

@Hck I suppose the key difference is that Nintendo literally invented this sport and the players are playing at the World Championships on the company’s terms. They made the game; they make the rules. And if one of the rules is, ‘don’t be racist’ then the competitors just have to suck it up.

The entire competition is a PR exercise for the sport and the company, and anyone who wins the tournament is automatically a ‘brand ambassador’ — whether that was their initial intention or not. If they can’t represent the brand by… say, not being openly racist, then the brand is at liberty to cut ties and do what it can to erase them from its records.

One can try to argue against this decision on ethical grounds (though it’s difficult to find solid ethical footing for blatant racism), but ultimately this is about business. And business rarely bends.

Nintendo, as a brand, seemingly doesn’t want to be associated with open racism. As a brand ambassador, it would be pertinent to keep that in mind.

I've been completely out of the loop, I had no idea who Team Jackpot was until yesterday when the news broke because I don't follow e-sports. I've been having a bit of a hard time finding exactly what they said/did.

Regardless, they look to be pretty young, based on the pictures I'm seeing of them online. If they're minors, I hope the internet will give them the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and grow as people, but I know that probably isn't going to happen.

I can't help but find it hypocritical that even though a minor is supposed to be too immature to give consent, they're somehow supposed to be mature enough to not say/do anything insensitive, racially or otherwise, without having to live with it for the rest of their lives.

I remember seeing where a couple of young high schoolers make a racist TikTok, which resulted in a lot of understandable backlash. But so many of the comments were things like, "Good luck getting into a good college now. 😂" Like... don't you WANT them to get educated, since racism usually comes from a place of ignorance? I dunno.

Not condoning whatever they did, but I am a firm believer in people being able to grow. I also don't know all the context of what they did--apparently there were some private discord messages, and I think that should be judged differently than a public post. Were the people they were making jokes with okay with it? Or was it distressing to them?

There are some things that are just tasteless to say publicly, but among a close friend group, dark humor may be more acceptable if you know how they're going to react. Knowing your audience is important. But if they knew making racial remarks in a private discord made those individuals feel isolated and humiliated, well then that's probably even worse than a public post because at that point you're just bullying a specific target.

I also saw where they evidently called opposing players "monkeys" in live streams or something, but again, I need more context. If the opposing team was comprised of black players and they knew that, then yeah, that's pretty bad. If they weren't, then it wasn't being used as a racial slur and would be a weird thing to get upset over.

Case in point, there's a lot I don't know and I don't want to judge the situation without sufficient information. I think it's true that, A) there are racist people on the world who can make minorities feel harassed ostracized from communities, and B) sometimes people fall victim to cancel culture despite their intentions not being to hurt, and/or because the internet is incapable of forgiving mistakes. I don't think one statement invalidates the other.

I'm veering more toward deliberate racism on this one, but again, I really don't have all the context. It should go without saying, but if people start harassing and sending death threats or something to Team Jackpot, that kind of behavior makes you no better--I'd argue that's significantly worse. I haven't heard of anyone doing that yet, but this is the internet.

They're young, they're naive, and while that shouldn't shield them from all criticism, I do hope that if they're earnestly regretful, they'll be able to find acceptance again someday.

@Not_Soos Thanks for taking the time to write your post. I agree 100%. These players are still young and young people say some pretty dumb things sometimes. They reflect the world they're growing up in, so there's a lesson for everyone here.

Nintendo's response looks more like brand protection, tbh. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but in the better scenario they would give these players a chance to apologise in public. Maybe they did reach out before making this decision, we don't have the full context.

Not that I condone what Jackpot did, but as I said in a previous statement, I don't think "cancelling" them is the way to go, per se. While I understand there isn't much you can do, saying that this team didn't do something amazing for the comp scene of Splatoon is false. Plus, these accusations came out after the World Championships. I know Nintendo doesn't want to promote what they said and did, but revoking a win they got using information found afterwards is really unfair. Again, I don't condone what they did, but at least in my mind, they don't need to suffer as a whole for something that not all of them did. (Not saying that none of them did some something, but not all of them did a lot.) Jared ofc has come forward with an apology, as did Madness and (I believe) Leafi and .q. Geniune or not, I want them to be able to grow from this experience, not simply see it as people "overreacting."
Sorry for that ramble lol, but I hold the Splatoon comp scene near and dear to my heart (I literally formed a wiki about it lol) and everything going on with gem, Chara, Jackpot, and others has been really weighing on me lately.

I wonder if the banner will be changed to show Unadon (the second place team) or just have the default "promo kids"? And will the trophies simply be revoked or passed on to Unadon instead??

I said some pretty awful stuff during my young "edgelord" phase trying desperately to be funny, but even then, I only said things like that around friends and knew better than to post it online where everyone can see it.
I grew up, got jobs where I made friends with a wider range of folk, and learned that punching down is rarely funny and that the true nature of humor in its purest form is an excessive use of puns. And I think a love for puns is required for all Nintendo Life readers. Puns are the great uniter. (uniter? I hardly know her!)

This Jackpot situation is really sad, why is this still a problem these days?

Now this is gonna leave a mark on the comp scene. Here's hoping things improve after this. 🙏

@Samalik

The question you should be asking yourself before making statements like this is "why not just become an official tournament?" It's an option open to anyone. You could run an official Smash tournament yourself if you wanted to. And yet these organizers are choosing not to do that, then complaining about big evil Nintendo not letting them run the tournament ... when big evil Nintendo would have let them run it as an official tournament if they just asked. Why?

Well it's simple. To run an official tournament you need to show Nintendo that

1) If food is being sold, you are following all food safety guidelines
2) If alcohol is being sold, you have measures in place to prevent under aged drinking
3) If minors are competing, there are safeguards in place to prevent any unsupervised contact between minors and adults.
4) Specific to Splatoon, you will use the word "Splat" instead of "killed" in all commentary, and no match can be "called" until Judd gives the official score.

You must agree to limited liability if these conditions are breached, or if you don't end up enforcing the policies you told Nintendo you would be.

Turns out a lot of organizers didn't really like that 3rd one very much because they or their associated talent and players were pedophiles using Nintendo's status as a kid friendly brand to lure and groom minors. This resulted in unprecedented sexual abuse in the Smash community.

See that's the thing about allowing people to use someone's IP willy nilly. Nintendo is fanatic about protecting minors at official events. At the Pokémon worlds, Children have escorts at all times and their is a huge police presence for the 10 and under events. No one but competitors and officials are allowed anywhere near the event. Parents start to associate Nintendo with this level of safety and security. So when they see an event being advertised with official Nintendo characters, they assume it's safe to let their children attend, because Nintendo is spending millions to protect children and project this image at official events.

So before Nintendo can shut down an event, it has to be unofficial, and the reason it's unofficial is that it's not willing to prove it has safeguards to protect children in place. So by making the argument "Nintendo shouldn't stop these events" you (unknowingly, I would both hope and assume) are suggesting that Nintendo should abandon the safeguards they put in place to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and allow known bad actors to continue to use Nintendo's IP to lure children.

Maybe ... don't make that argument? Nothing is ever as simple aa black and white, and if you're going to form a strong opinion on a subject, make sure it's an informed opinion. Nintendo might strong arm organizers, but they have good reason to do so.

https://kotaku.com/over-50-sexual-misconduct-allegations-have-the-super-sm-1844328719

Gotta hand it to Nintendo for Acknowledging this and doing something about it. They could've just said nothing. I guess they learned from the Smash Controversy with ZeRo and Nairo.

@Qwiff they all gave their individual apologies a day after everything went down. Nintendo actually took several weeks to deliberate this announcement.

The fact that I read more than one comment basically condoning them being racist, it’s just wow. I’ve heard from my black friends that the Splatoon community can be rough, my best friend stopped playing because the amount of times he was called a monkey or gorilla on discord, and i mentioned just not using discord and he said ya but you still know so many of them are scum so i just can’t. Another great reason to stay single player campaigning for life.

i do not think swearing is as slippery of a slope to racism as some comments here make it out to be.

Good on Nintendo. Such behaviors have no place in Splatoon.

As a frequent player, I have noticed the rise in questionable nicknames. Sure you get the usual toilet humor and puns, but there has been some “I think it’s edgy to call myself this right now” nicknames especially given the social and cultural climate of the day.

There have been a few that right out crosses the line I found myself reporting them. And I hate being that person. It is only until I attach a lengthy explaination of why their nicknames are problematic in my reporting that reminds me how disrespectful we can be.

GOOD RIDDANCE. People like that have NO RIGHT to be apart of something as huge as Splatoon.

(also i find it kinda funny that the initial example banner Nintendo showcased featured a black Inkling, and the team that ended up winning the banner ended up being anti-black?? Like why even participate in a diverse competitive scene when you don't like people with a bit more melanin than you? This is Splatoon, not a Family Guy skit. Shame on Jackpot.)

@somebread I also found that very odd, who in their right mind could equate dropping an eff bomb with calling someone the n word. Kinda tells you all you need to know about them.