No doubt you’ve heard about the Smash World Tour’s cancellation and how it involved esports group Panda Global. Go watch this video from our own esports correspondent Lewis Larcombe about it.

After that video and news broke, Panda Global published an official statement about it on Twitter. And following that, a day later, over 80% of Panda’s players and commentators from Smash and its fighting game group appear to be distancing themselves from the group. In fact, some of them are resigning entirely like Cody “iBDW” Schwab and Justin “Plup” McGrath, Chris “WaDi” Boston from their Smash division. Content Creators affiliated with the org have also left such as Terrence “TKbreezy” Kershaw, Zak “Coney” Zeeks, Ryan “Saint Cola” Collins, Marine, and Victoria “VikkiKitty” Perez (via Eventhubs).

Good Morning. Thought about/slept on it. I too will be resigning from Panda.

Was gonna wait till I get home but I can talk about it more in depth later. That good feeling I had from being under this org and finally being sponsored feels erased with no chance of coming back.

— TKbreezy ? (@TKbreezy) December 3, 2022

On-screen fighting game content creators-slash-tournament players like Justin Wong, Victor “Punk” Woodley, and Keenan “Kizzie Kay” Kizzie have removed Panda from their respective Twitter pages. They have yet to make a formal announcement about it. Even notable SSBU players like Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma stated that they won’t be attending Panda Cup’s SSBU tournament. Others include Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni, Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson, Enrique “Maister” Hernández, Samuel “Dabuz” Buzby, Sasha “Magi” Sullivan, Griffin “Fatality” Miller, Zain “Zain” Naghmi, Masaya “aMSa” Chikamoto, Joseph “Mang0” Marquez, Shephard “Fiction” Lima, Edgard “n0ne” Sheleby, Justin “Wizzrobe” Hallett, Leonardo “MkLeo” Lopez Perez, Juan “Medz” Garcia, Linus “Pipsqueak” Nordin, John “KoDoRiN” Ko, Avery “Ginger” Wilson, and Eduardo “Eddy Mexico” Lucatero Rincon.

I won’t be attending Panda Cup.

Too little, and way too late. https://t.co/902CEl9VQe

— hungrybox ??? (@LiquidHbox) December 2, 2022

Time will tell if this leaves Panda Global’s fighting game esports in jeopardy.