Today marks one year since the 2022 Panda Cup Finale was indefinitely postponed, and Panda paused all competitive and content operations, so we thought we would give an update on what’s changed this past year and what our future plans are. Currently, Panda has eight core staff members, down from over a hundred at our peak, who are working hard to rebuild and reaffirm Panda’s goals for the new year. Most of our work has been focused on providing backend support for esports, and we hope to continue pouring our passion into competitive gaming moving forward. Our former CEO, Dr. Alan, has not been involved with the organization in any capacity since December 2022.

At this time, Panda does not have any immediate plans to return to signing players, creating original content, or hosting our own events. PGstats.com is currently still live, but due to a lack of stable revenue, the site will be taken offline at the start of the new year. We will not be resuming production of the Panda Controller and are exploring options to sell the patents. Our former content, stats, and hardware divisions have all separated from Panda and either formed smaller, independent teams or moved on to other projects. They are all extremely talented people and we wish them success in all of their endeavors.

We are aware of the recent licensing guidelines published by Nintendo in October. While working with Nintendo on the Panda Cup, we went through a very similar process for all of the events on the circuit. We have experience navigating Nintendo’s commercial licensing guidelines for both Super Smash Bros.™ Ultimate and Melee. If any tournament organizers have questions about the licensing process, feel free to reach out to us through our website and we would be happy to answer them free of charge.

For those of you interested in supporting us, we have a collection of merchandise in storage, including a line of unreleased Panda Cup apparel, that we will be selling at a discounted price to clear out our inventory. Unfortunately, we do not plan to restock any items and we can not guarantee the availability of every size for our older collections. We're starting with a line of bomber jackets that were intended to debut at the 2022 Panda Cup Finale. We have always strived to produce practical, high-quality merchandise, and these jackets are no exception. They are available for purchase now at panda.gg.

We at Panda are, and have been, dedicated members of this community. We are passionate about working hard to help create new opportunities for Super Smash Bros., the FGC, and esports as a whole. We still believe that there are many out there who share this vision and that, if we come together, we can accomplish anything. We hope to be able to update you all again very soon with what's next for Panda.

Thanks for reading.