According to Nintendo, the 2024 Splatoon 3 World Champions, team Jackpot, lost their titles after breaking tournament and community guidelines.
Nintendo announced the stripping of Jackpot’s titles on social media on July 23, 2024, releasing a statement saying the team “acted in a manner that is not in line with [their] Community Guidelines.” As a result, their win has been invalidated.
On top of stripping the team of their titles, an in-game banner added to Splatoon 3 in honor of their win is being removed in a future update. It’s unknown at this time whether the runners-up of the event, Japan’s Phantom Thief, will be awarded the title instead.
Nintendo doesn’t state the reason, only saying the team breached community guidelines, but the news follows reports of alleged racist behavior from certain team members that surfaced in a June Reddit thread. The thread makes references to racist slurs and unsavory comparisons between animals and minority groups, which is likely the reason Nintendo stripped Jackpot of their title.
Since the threads dropped, one team member, Jared, responded in a lengthy Google document in June 2024. He addresses the alleged instances, apologizes, and admits to several allegations.
Despite the event taking place in April 2024, the teams had yet to receive their trophies, and following the news, the trophies won’t ever reach them. It’s unclear if the team and its members will be permitted to compete in future events.
