Super Smash Con, a keystone of the Super Smash Bros. community that features tournament play of every single Smash game within a fully Nintendo-centric convention environment, has announced that tournament participant Osiris197 will no longer be allowed to attend the event in response to a multitude of accounts of past violent behavior and verbal harassment.
Most recently, a fistfight between Osiris and another player at this past June’s Community Effort Orlando fighting game tournament has served as a catalyst for posts about Osiris’ past behavior to surface on Twitter. His responses to these allegations have ranged from admitting partial fault to defending his use of a racial slur.
At Community Effort Orlando, Osiris and a player named RiotLettuce engaged in a fist fight in response to Osiris having knocking a water jug out of a third player’s hands earlier during the event. Both Osiris and RiotLettuce posted individual accounts of the fight to Twitter, and while each differs significantly as to who was the aggressor, Osiris does claim responsibility for his own physical aggression and admits to being intoxicated at the time.
When it was made public that Osiris would be attending Super Smash Con, RiotLettuce posted a Twitter DM correspondence with the convention’s Twitter account. Super Smash Con stated that they had already reached out to Osiris, and reached a mutual agreement that he could be removed from the tournament after a single misgiving by tournament staff, but would still be allowed to attend.
As further accounts of Osiris’ behavior surfaced and were shared within the community, sentiment shifted toward Osiris’ presence at the tournament being a safety issue. Super Smash Con later posted a statement to Twitter declaring that Osiris197 would no longer be allowed to attend.
Following the convention’s post, Osiris released his own statement simultaneously questioning the level of discipline leveled against him while also admitting that some of his past behavior was regrettable. He then Tweeted that he would be attending rehab and therapy, and opened his Twitter DMs to anyone interested in reaching out to him directly.
This comes on the heels of fellow Smash player CaptainZack admitting to past match fixing, for which he was banned from play at Smash Con, but would still be allowed to attend. Super Smash Con will take place from August 8 to 11 in Chantilly, VA, hopefully without further incident.