It is well-known that professional players take gaming tournaments seriously; often to an excessive degr. It doesn’t matter whether we’re the game at hand is Mortal Kombat 11 or something like Pokémon, as they are often recognized as a serious subject or competition. This makes perfect sense, of course, because some players make their living this way and there are sometimes huge prize pots on the line. Still, though, there’s just something about competition that brings out the very worst in people.
Moreover, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in a tournament setting. A casual round of online multiplayer in any game can potentially result in what is recognized as poor sportsmanship.
Face-to-face encounters, however, can be much more harrowing than the poorly-formed text messages sent back and forth on Xbox Live. Earlier this week, for instance, we saw the sad case of Leif Boisvert, better known as Buffalo, who verbally abused an opponent he had beaten in a Mortal Kombat bout at CEO 2019. Said opponent, Brad “Scar” Vaughn, has been commended for keeping his cool in the situation. Now, over in the Smash Bros. community, another controversial incident has cropped up.
As Game Revolution reports, a 15-year-old female Smash player by the name of Bocchi caused an upset at a tournament when she defeated top player Ally. Furthermore, she defeated Ally’s Snake using Isabelle, considered inferior to Snake, among other fighters. Smash Bros. players might think that this would be an achievement worthy of praise, but the Smash community is more than capable of showing objectionable behavior.
This was illustrated by Bocchi, herself, recently. As she had stated on Twitter, she’s been so criticized by the community since the shocking upset that she’s totally discouraged from even playing any more:
Bocchi went on to discuss how, as a female, "being a teenager is actually the worst especially in an extremely male dominated community" and commented on its bizarre nature. She added that she appreciate the support from fans and Twitter followers, though she mentioned that she would be taking a hiatus from the competitive gaming scene.
As heated as things can get at a tournament and as passionate as fans can be about their favorite pros, there’s really no excuse for this sort of thing. Somewhere, Sakurai may be looking with disappointment.