The Smash community also has unique age dynamics; players who got into the franchise back in 2002 are thrown in the same room as younger players only getting competitive with its 2018 iteration. At tournaments, kids interact with older or more established players, sometimes as part of the tournament and other times outside of play. Young players attend to compete, often without parents. (Some top Smash players earned their laurels when they were minors.) Random competitors and fans will ask for a hug, Buzby says, or to sign something. He theorized how easy it might be to get their Twitter or Discord handle and slide into their DMs, or meet up later at a hotel room post-tournament party where there might be alcohol.
“We kind of just assumed that this is a great, open, wholesome scene where people could go and have a good time and find great people to interact with over a video game,” he says. “It let people who are shady take advantage of everything,” he says.
In a widely shared video, pro player William “Leffen” Hjelte lambasted Smash’s culture of hero worship in the wake of recent allegations: “I’m not your friend. I’m an entertainer. I’m a pro player,” he says. “You shouldn’t assume that just because I’m a top player, I’m a top person, a great person. You don’t know me. It is very easy as a streamer to do your bad shit during the hours you don’t stream.”
With a loose, open tournament structure, a hands-off approach to minors, unchecked celebrity, and uneven regulations, the culture surrounding Smash made for an unsafe environment, sources say. And its veneer of inclusivity has give ..
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