Smash Bros. Player Controller thrown on the Tourney Riles Community

The weekend saw a major tournament in the Genesis 9 fighting game. There were stellar combos and massive upsets as a super major event for Super Smash Bros. close combat and Final ended January 22nd. Unfortunately, while the tournament was going on, one of the best Canadian players in Kazuya, Michael “Riddles” Kim, caused heated discussions in Finalcommunity around “best player privilege” and “ego issues” when he dropped his controller after losing a match.

Considered one of the best Kazuya and Terry chains in Canada. Puzzles is ranked ninth throughout North America. A member of esports organization Team Liquid, Riddles has placed in the top 10 at virtually every tournament he has competed in, with his most recent first-place finish being at the November 2022 Path to Glory tournament in Saskatchewan where he won around $11,000. . first place. In short, Brothers Super Smash. the community considers Riddles a goat. So knowing that he enters Genesis 9, A California tournament filled to the brim with top level talent such as Steve player acola and Marth main MKLeo, his ardent fans and interested spectators have been waiting for his performance. He did, but not to the level that he or the gaming community could have hoped for.

Riddles found himself in the losing bracket after losing in a close set against Palutena’s Chase. Riddles would win the next two matches in this bracket, but would end up facing French team Lucina’s main player, Nassim “Leon” Laib. The fight started strongly in favor of Riddles. However, Leon had Riddles’ number on speed dial as Leon switched to Chrome and didn’t give Riddles any room to breathe.

It all came to a head when, in the last fight, Leon took down Riddles with perfect effect. Riddles lost that match. After sitting in the chair for a while, disappointment clearly visible on his face and his opponent no longer on screen, Riddles abruptly threw his controller before leaving the arena.

People were puzzled by this upset as Riddles was the top seed, which meant he should have placed quite high. However, Leon is ranked 77th. The odds were always in Riddles’ favor, as evidenced by the faces of those close to the two players. Apart from congratulating Leon on his victory, most people were stunned by what happened. There were a few shots of Riddle sulking in his chair, but most of the others in the immediate vicinity were shocked.

It was this brief moment that ignited Brothers Super Smash. community in a discussion about appearing in a professional setting.

“You’re dropping the controller,” one tweeter tweeted. said Riddles in capital letters. “Do you know how much you make people suffer? You lost [and] outplayed by a neutral character. You’re just making people 0, so [fuck] turned off.”

“It’s called holding people accountable,” another tweet. said. “Something this community needs more actually.”

“It doesn’t matter if he’s humble, he still had that moment.” Third tweet. said. “If you pass him now, 9 times out of 10, it will happen again. Just stop fam lmao. Everyone has those moments, we understand that, but brushing it aside just shows why the top player perk is a thing.”

The comments on the above YouTube video aren’t much better, with some agreeing that Riddles “has no right to be salty or mean” and that he’s a “little kid” who needs to “be a man”. Others laughed at the incident, while several people remembered his name, calling him “Shittles” instead. One person even said that Riddles had “crazy ego issues” due to this reaction. Shish.

This is because Riddles is played by Kazuya Mishima, one of the TekkenHeroes of Russia, 81st combat unit Super Smash Bros. UltimateFighters Pass Vol. 2 and an infamous character in the game scene. Kazuya is a combo heavy fighter in Finalbased primarily on his electric wind god fist to stun your opponents and deal serious damage. Kazuya, and especially that stunner, was a thorn in the side of the community. Final players regularly ask Kazuya (as well as Steve from mine craft) to get banned from tournaments. In short, Riddles is very much hated because of the character he plays, and his loss to Leon and the explosion on camera that followed became an excuse for heaping up to the point that Riddles ended up deactivating his Twitter account.

Kotaku reached out to Riddles for comment.

In private messages on Twitter Kotaku, Leon said that he was afraid of Riddles and was motivated by him, ready to fight him in the Genesis 9 competition. However, Leon did not expect to beat Riddles, saying that he was “very surprised and shocked” that he did so with his secondary character, Chrome. He was also not completely surprised by Riddles’ reaction after the fact, although he did not completely agree with his opponent’s behavior.

“[Riddles’ reaction was] fully [unwarranted] in any major competition. It’s easy to see,” Leon said. “Throwing your own controller into [release] disappointment is not the best move, but it concerns only him and himself. As long as he respects his opponents (as was the case with me), there is nothing particularly nasty [about what he did]. I would be sad and hurt to be eliminated from the tournament so early.”

Not everyone is dragging Riddle for how he popped up in Genesis 9. A few top players from Jonni’s former rival to famous player Justin Wong to Aaron Wilhite of Moist Esports, defended Riddles’ actions. It’s a bit ironic when you think about it, since a few days before the start of Genesis 9, the Italian smash the player was suspended from future tournaments after literally punching his opponent during a live broadcast. Riddles, on the other hand, took out his frustration on an inanimate object and announced that he would be taking an extended break from his Discord. I don’t really understand what the community wants from Riddles or top players in general, but asking them to be robots and not show any emotion is not true. I mean, I still sometimes throw away my controllers because video games make me angry. It’s human nature, right? At least Riddles didn’t bounce back on his competitor.