Last month, Nintendo announced they would be holding a ‘Splatoon 2 North American Open December 2020’ tournament on 5 and 6 December 2020.

Originally, the company was planning to livestream the finals for the event. However, Nintendo has since announced that they will be cancelling the stream due to “Unexpected Executional Challenges”. To clarify, the finals will still be held, but fans will no longer be able to watch along as the teams compete.

Although Nintendo did not elaborate further on the reasons behind the cancellation, fans believe that it is related to the ongoing “#FreeMelee” movement protesting Nintendo’s decision to shut down The Big House Smash Bros. tournament for using modded copies of Super Smash Bros. Melee. According to reports, many of the teams lined up to play in the Splatoon 2 North American Open December 2020 finals used names referencing “#FreeMelee” in support of the movement.

Of course, without official confirmation from Nintendo this is all just speculation. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.