Nintendo revokes Splatoon 3 World Championship win following racist remarks from some winners: "The team will not receive trophies"

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Jackpot's win has been nullified

Splatoon 3
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Nintendo has revoked the recent Splatoon 3 World Championship win following the discovery of racist remarks made by members of the winning team.

The USA team Jackpot won Nintendo's Splatoon 3 World Championship back in April and thus were commemorated with an in-game Splashtag banner. In the months since, racist messages sent by some members of Jackpot have surfaced online, and it seems Nintendo has taken notice.

"It has come to our attention that certain members of team Jackpot, the team that recently won the Splatoon 3 World Championship, acted in a manner that is not in line with our Community Guidelines while playing the Splatoon 3 game," reads a statement from Nintendo, shared to Twitter. "As a result, team Jackpot’s win will be considered vacated, and the team will not receive trophies associated with the event."

It's worth pointing out that Nintendo didn't delineate what behavior led to its decision, but it's pretty easy to connect the dots. We also won't be getting into specifics here, but there's plenty of information online that doesn't require a whole lot of digging to unearth.

Regardless, Nintendo said it's nullifying Jackpot's win and removing the associated in-game banner in an upcoming update. "Nintendo cares deeply about our players and our community, and we take our responsibility to uphold our Community Guidelines seriously," the company said.

Nintendo has yet to announce a retroactive winner of the championship, and it's possible the event will remain winner-less. Phantom Thief of the Heart is the Japanese team that made it to the final and lost to Jackpot, but it's as of yet unclear whether it'll receive the win.

Recovering from the first game's shutdown, Splatoon 3 fans wonder how the latest and "biggest" Splatfest will shape an inevitable Splatoon 4.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.