Nintendo Withdraws Splatoon 3 World Championship After Racist Messages From Winners Surface

In April, USA’s team Jackpot won Nintendo’s Splatoon 3 World Championship, earning an in-game appearance that cemented its members as the first players to be commemorated in a Splatoon game. However, after racist messages sent by the team surfaced in the months following the event, Nintendo has now announced that it will invalidate the team’s win and remove their likenesses from the game.

Today, in a post on X/Twitter, Nintendo Versus announced that Jackpot’s win would be vacated and the team would not receive trophies due to its violations of the company’s community guidelines.

An update on the 2024 Splatoon 3 World Championship: pic.twitter.com/pYUMQzmj7S

— Nintendo Versus (@NintendoVS) July 23, 2024

Nintendo also pledged to adjust a Splashtag (or in-game profile banner) it had added to the game to commemorate Jackpot’s win. The adjustment will presumably remove the team’s characters from the banner and replace them with default characters.

Phantom Thief of the Heart, the Japanese team that played against Jackpot in the final, was not retroactively granted the win after the announcement, leaving the World Championship with no official winner.

“Nintendo cares deeply about our players and our community, and we take our responsibility to uphold our Community Guidelines seriously,” the post reads.

Nintendo’s move comes after the team’s racist messages circulated online in early June. Videos and screenshots (which can be seen in this thread — warning for offensive language) show members of the team using racist slurs and phrases in Discord messages and calls, with some even sending targeted messages to other players.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun, and they’re currently developing a game called Garage Sale. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.