The organizers for Evolution Championship Series (EVO) have announced that Super Smash Bros won’t be joining the lineup for EVO 2022, ahead of them announcing the main lineups for the tournament.

“Since 2007, we’ve seen historic Super Smash Bros. created at EVO ‘s events”, they said in a statement.”We are saddened that Nintendo has chosen not to continue that legacy with us this year”.

From the statement it’s clear that the decision to exclude Smash Bros from EVO 2022 came from Nintendo not to allow their game to be featured at this year’s event, though no specific reason was given.

Fans had been speculating that this would be the case ever since EVO was partially owned by PlayStation. Despite this however, their initial statement upon purchasing the fighting game tournament series was that they would maintain the multiplatform approach of the tournament’s games.

It should be noted though, that Nintendo is launching its own esports circuit for both Super Smash Bros Ultimate and the much older Melee in North America, which might explain the parting with EVO.

The Smash series has always seen representation at major EVO events, be it via the latest Smash game or the long running Melee, which has a dedicated fanbase.

The announcement was made ahead of the lineup reveal due largely in part to this passionate fanbase, who would have likely been thrown into a rage had they watched the whole announcement and not seen their favorite game on the list.