On Licensing - Low Ink's Licensing Fiasco (Leak)

[BrushStrokes]

Hello all--I'm Brush, I'm the lesser known Head TO of Low Ink. Popgun recently posted a contest to create the February Low Ink map pool without the consent of his fellow Head TOs. To get back at him, I wrote up and am leaking my experience navigating the process and steps we took in an attempt to get Low Ink officially licensed by Nintendo, and why we ultimately were forced to run without a license.

The biggest headache I've ever had was on December 1st, getting spammed by @HoeenHero and @Popgun with new information about licensing. If you want to know ANYTHING about Low Ink's experience trying to get officially licensed, this doc is for you.

You can read the entire exposé here.

 

[Abyss]

Thanks for sharing, that's really interesting. We don't usually get to see what happens behind the scene and I don't think people realize the amount of work you guys do. Low Ink is honestly one of the best tournament I've ever played (been playing comps in multiple games for 10+ years). From seeding, to helpdeck, to running on time, etc. Props to you guys, You're doing an awesome job.

Did you guys managed to get a license? Or is this still in limbo?

 

[BrushStrokes]

Did you guys managed to get a license? Or is this still in limbo?

When we applied for a license, we applied for the maximum number of months they allowed us to (they recommend recurring events approve however many as possible). The rejection meant those dates all were outright rejected by Nintendo. As I write in the doc, it's because IPL is not a legal entity, a requirement we didn't know existed.

 

[GayShark]

Is IPL attempting to become a legal entity, or are you staying as is for the time being?

 

[Alphine_Agnitio]

honestly a super interesting thread, its been a long time since I've had to deal with logistics of this scale(and definingly not to the extreme degree this doc goes over, it was managing relations with art discord servers while staffing one myself and doing PR work) so it is neat to see this perspective.

 

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Hello all--I'm Brush, I'm the lesser known Head TO of Low Ink. Popgun recently posted a contest to create the February Low Ink map pool without the consent of his fellow Head TOs.

Brush wouldn't have done anything regarding the map pool

 

[zyf_]

lmao based

 

[guster-animations]

man i was questioning the hell out of the TOs in the freakin help desk when you announced december low ink, i’m really sorry for that
is there a reason that nintendo didn’t specify that you had to be a legal organization on the form?

 

[BrushStrokes]

man i was questioning the hell out of the TOs in the freakin help desk when you announced december low ink, i’m really sorry for that
is there a reason that nintendo didn’t specify that you had to be a legal organization on the form?

Your guess is as good as ours. We had reason to believe we would not have to be a legal entity. Nintendo is a massive company with different divisions responsible for different regions, serving millions of customers. It's reasonable that different people had different information.

 

[Aiko.Octo]

Wow, what a fascinating read. I often wonder what's going on behind the scenes and this lays out the story in a way that is informative and enlightening as well as just engaging to read. Really appreciate you putting this together.

Y'all do such amazing work and endure a lot of pressure to run these events. So much respect.