The Latency Mod originally released by Blujay greatly improved the online experience for anyone willing to induce mods on their Switch consoles overnight. Amazingly, Blujay had seemingly done what Nintendo and the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate development team had struggled to do by creating a “playable” online experience for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Strangely, not everyone was happy about the advent of the Latency Mod. Particularly, notable Japanese players seemed to express jealousy over overseas players being able to more readily being able to practice Super Smash Bros. Ultimate since Japanese laws on modding were known for being especially strict and harsh. Some players even threatened to tell Nintendo about the Latency Mod, which would’ve very likely resulted in a cease-and-desist letter.
Of course, it’s also worth pointing out that those using the Latency Mod would surely have an advantage over those that didn’t or couldn’t use it. Evidently, some players have taken some serious issues with this.
This “problem” has now seemingly come to a head that has resulted in Bluejay outright discontinuing development and removing the Latency Mod on GitHub. The developers of the mod are also taking actions in order to prevent further distribution of it.
On the surface, one might think that Nintendo had finally caught wind of the development of this project and has pushed to have it shut down. However, the real reason is due to a bizarre interaction with an unnamed player.
According to Blujay, someone opened an issue on GitHub on the delay mod that criticized the usage of the mod in Quickplay and Elite Smash, likely as it gave that significant advantage over those that didn’t use it.
At first, Blujay chose to ignore this “issue,” but the person then apparently escalated things by posting personal information taken from the developers’ LinkedIn accounts. As such, the developers had decided to discontinue the project altogether.
Additionally, Blujay has stated that he will request that users delete their copies of the repository that are present on GitHub moving forward. Sadly, it would seem like Blujay won’t be interacting with the Smash community anymore due to this situation.
Blujay’s Statement on Delay Mod Removal
Recently a GitHub issue was opened on the ssbu-less-lag repository criticizing the use of the mod of Quickplay and Elite Smash.
Initially, the issue read like bait and I chose to ignore it.
Earlier today, however, the original poster escalated the situation by posting the LinkedIn profiles of myself and BlankMauser, along with other identifying information, in the issue thread.
I have since closed and locked the issue and removed the comment containing that information.
While some of my information was publicly available, digging it up and posting it in this context crosses a line and makes me extremely uncomfortable.
Because of this, I’ve realized that continuing to work on, host or support these projects is not worth the impact on my personal privacy and peace of mind.
After discussing the situation with BlankMauser, we have decided to take down the repositories we currently host. I will also be privating all SSBU-related positories under my GitHub account.
I understand that this will not prevent the distribution of binaries that have already been released. However, I ask that people do not redistribute these mods publicly going forward.
I also request that users who have forked the repositories delete their forks. Where possible, I will be submitting removal requests through GitHub.
This situation is extremely disappointing. I have spent a long time contributing to projects in the Smash community, and have long considered it a home, but moving forward I will be permanently distancing myself from this scene and the members within it.
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