Incredibly rude people at KI evo

Tournaments
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I entered the KI side tournament at Evo this weekend. The tournament was fun, but during my match in the losers bracket my opponent had friends who stood behind us and yelled insults and obscenities at me the entire set.

Everytime I failed to break, everytime he stomped on me with Raam, it’s was a constant screaming right in my ear.

I looked at the TO after the first match and he didn’t do anything, which means it’s allowed. Maybe he was waiting for me to say something, but this was my first tournament ever so I got no idea what is protocol.

I won’t lie, it worked. I was shook and while I probably wouldn’t have won the match I would have at least played better.

It was a pretty awful experience though and I don’t recommend entering a KI side tournament next year.

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You really should speak up about it next time. You’re within your right to tell people off so you can focus on your match.

Sorry about your experience. I don’t know why that happened.

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It is a tournament & people do get hype, but you as a paying competitor have all rights to tell them to back off etc. Us TO’s wont know there is an issue unless you say something. A lot of us are focused on making sure the tournament is going good & no other major issues happen. So I can see why rotendo didn’t do anything. If no one lets him know something is wrong then he cant fix it. Same with every event.

a lot of us bring headphones to drown out the crowd & to focus better. But you have to step up & let people know you have an issue or then stuff lends to post like this instead of talking face to face with them & getting a solution or a better understanding why “situation happened”

I’m sorry you had a bad experience with the crowd. I hope this doesn’t discourage you from joining us in the future. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to reach out. @LegendaryJMan

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Geez, sounds awful, not cool at all. Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience tbh.

I agree with PharrohYami, let the TO know.

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You should tell him those insults don’t make people play better, or you could asking if he’s trying to make you lose.

But the others are right. These things will continue if you don’t do something.

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Ive been there… happened to me in a grand finals at MSC and I was livid. After the medal ceremony I went down told the kid I would dunk him in front of everyone if he ever disrespected KI or a player in a tournament again. He said “yes sir” and shuffled on back to Smash.

the next year he never said a word and just gave me the “hello whats up nod”. LOL…I think he learned a lesson that day.

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It was defintely not hype generated by the match. Those are more like “oooh” and “that was tight.”

This was a calculated attempt to intimidate me from friends of my opponent, and it worked.

I now know to say something. Either tell my opponent to handle his friends or get the TO involved.

I was worried that it was standard behavior. I am glad to know it is not.

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Most rude people like that would’ve gotten hurt doing what they do. Sucks to know that certain people are stupid.

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no its not standard(to harass or belittle) from my pov. if I was there & saw it I would of stepped in but you as a player need to step up so the situation can be handle correctly. Like I said I hope this doesn’t affect you joining future events.

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I had my share of bad experiences in tourneys, some including sexist comments. But considering the type of persons who said them I would never take them seriously, they were either scrubs or bad / troll persons (oh, I would stand and ask them what’s their problem). I mean, it wasn’t rare at arcades either so, nothing really new. But when the comments are affecting my gameplay it’s other story (I admit I lost badly once because of this). Some atittudes just suck and you have the right to complain, as a player. Even you are new, top or pro.

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You can’t just say “don’t entire KI” when this can happen in any tournament. People getting hype & yelling is fine. If it’s harassment & being blown up in your ear then YOU need to be vocal. Don’t let bs go unchecked

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Hey @LegendaryJMan- I thought that I’d add my own two cents, because you’re totally not alone here. :expressionless:

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It was January 2014, and I explicitly remember that because Spinal just released :skull:, and I found out that my local Microsoft Store was running a Killer Instinct tournament- how cool is that?! (Answer: very.) I planned to show up that evening, and… it was pretty sucky.

Please note that it wasn’t the fault of the Microsoft crewmembers at all- They were friendly, served Red Bull (Pass. I’m a Mountain Dew kinda guy.), and even gave out neat Xbox One controller keychains to everyone who participated. The problem stemmed from the other players; I was as friendly in person as I am here on the forums, but it didn’t take too long before it felt like I was invading their clique and that I didn’t belong…

Sabrewulf and I rocked the in-store tournament fairly well that night, and I took 3rd place, but a few times I picked up the controller, a group of thugs would literally yell all kinds of foulmouthed crap at the top of their lungs right into my ears as I was playing! I looked to the Microsoft Store rep, who clearly saw (and HEARD) what was going on, but he ignored it completely. Of course I wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to get jumped by a bunch of tools in the parking lot after the tournament wrapped up… :persevere:

Of course, I never went back to a local KI tourney because of the overwhelming immaturity, unfriendly atmosphere, and lack of sportsmanship from the other players that night, and it’s a ■■■■ shame. If there’s something that any of you may know about me, it’s that I :green_heart: KI and its community so much, but there’s a reason I don’t care to take the time to even attempt to attend tournaments in person; it’s sad, but all too often, there’s a wave of obnoxious immaturity that plagues many gaming events.

In a nutshell, I’m sorry that you had to deal with some craphats in a situation similar to mine, but I hope you stick around the forums! We’re a good bunch, and it’s always nice to meet a fresh face!

-Zenek

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That sucks. Who was your opponent?

The exact same group of people will be all over twitter yelling at “the community” to raise tournament numbers for the game. Then when people show up they treat them terribly.

And I don’t give @RoTeNdO a pass on this. I know the TO is busy and has a lot going on. But if you are the organizer for an event you have some responsibility to pay attention to what’s going on and make sure there is not a hostile environment. Putting the responsibility on the competitors to police the audience is not fair. There should be clear rules about where people are allowed to be and what they are not allowed to do while someone is playing a match.

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Hi, everyone. First I’d like to say thank you all for participating. Next I’d like to say, I’m 100% sure it wasn’t me. Why do I know this? Because from 1100 to nearly 1600 I was running Top 8 Injustice 2 and on the stage.

So when you say TO, I think you actually meant the bracket runner who was running pools for KI. If I were there and have heard obscenities and what not, that would have stopped. We do not tolerate that in this community (or any other for that matter) @BigBadAndy You tagged me as if I’d allow such a thing and without even hearing the full story from all parties involved. I don’t fault you though. Not many people knows the difference between a judge/bracket runner and a TO. It was happening all weekend (and a bit annoying) We have our refs, those with the jackets that says REF on them, with the brackets in hand, and the TOs running the games/events stationed in the HQ area or walking around ensuring their corresponding games are running in order and asking the Refs if they’re good, running on time, if they need help, etc.

Heckling, hyping up your buddy, etc is nothing new to the fgc. It’s been happening since the beginning of time (arcades) and back then, we had to learn to deal with the crowd noise, the haters, fans, etc… Imagine being the visitor from the opposite coast and going against the hometown champion. You’re enemy. You’re elbow to elbow with your opponent on an arcade cabinet inside an arcade that’s not even 300sq ft, with 30+ people all crowed around your, on stools, over your shoulders, etc. We had to endure all that. On top of the tourney nerves and jitters.

Now I’ve been around. I’ve served in the military. So I have learned to develop tough skin and mute/block out things. The environment does and can affect performance, which I agree, but it’s not always going to be comfortable. You cannot prepare for it mentally. It’s something you’ll have to learn to deal with at that moment when it happens. Policed or not.

First time event. You’re well reserved, timid, maybe in a little culture shock, overwhelmed… not sure how to speak up or to whom… It’s hardly communicated anywhere what should happen if something like that ever takes place. Usually it’s common sense. Behave like decent human beings. Don’t embarrass yourselves. Treat others the way you want to be treated. All of that. You would think it shouldn’t have to be communicated. Right?

I believe, that when you looked at the person running pools (Mr. Renegade) and he “didn’t do anything”, he was behaving based on what we’re accustomed to. The hype crowd and etc. Now if there were names called, racist comments, and etc… he should have stepped in and asked them to please refrain from doing so. I don’t know the full story or what words were used or said, but the bottom line was you felt uneasy and uncomfortable about the whole thing that it disrupted your concentration. (it happens everywhere and with every sport. Especially football. It gets so loud that you can’t hear the play call or audible. Mistakes are made. I don’t have to get too detailed here, but you get the gist)

Just because you had a bad experience, doesn’t mean the community should stop entering events. You address the situation to the TO (me, not the guy who was running pools) and I’ll make sure to apologize for your experience and ensure that it won’t happen again by adding a disclaimer to all players traveling with friends/teammates. Maybe even having some sort of blocked area for spectating (which is asking a lot) but we’ll do our best to make sure your next experience is better and more enjoyable.

Please DM me via Twitter at @usmc_rotendo and I’ll take care of you. :slight_smile:

  • Rotendo
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I tagged you because someone said you were the TO. I wasn’t there so admittedly I’m at the mercy of other people to tell the story. I think between here and @SonicDolphin117’s twitter stream it’s pretty clear that everyone is in agreement on the fact that when the OP played his opponent had a bunch of friends standing around yelling. The only disagreement seems to be how bad the things they were saying were.

I appreciate your willingness to try to address the problem, and I certainly don’t want to pick a fight with you about it. But I have to say I get kind of tired of the “back in my day…” justifications. I think the fact that people used to act like ■■■■■■■■ in arcades is not very relevant to the discussion.

I mean, why would people continue to subject themselves to an unpleasant experience over and over again?

We have a problem in gaming that is much much broader than just how people act at FGC tournaments, but I think the attitude that it’s just part of the experience is unhelpful. The same way it’s simply unnaceptable to see people making sexist comments on Twitch chat any time a female player shows up, I think it’s just unnaceptable to have people show up to live tournaments and have to deal with this.

Like I said, I wasn’t there so I’m not going to argue the finer points of what was said, but from what everyone is saying it definitely sets up a situation that I certainly wouldn’t put up with. The largest cohort of people in any tournament go 0-2. If people really want to grow the communiy then those people are exactly the ones you should be targeting. If the people who play and lose are also treated with disrespect by the community, why on earth would they come back?

EDIT: I should say, that some of this is the responsibility of the organizer to establish the rules. But that we also have a lot of “bystander” mentality in the community. If you see somebody getting heckled or harassed in pools you should intervene and say “hey guys lay off. This guys just trying to play.”

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Watch this clip @LegendaryJMan

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Again. I am the TO, however, as I said in my comment. People don’t know the difference from TO and bracket/red/pool runner. Everyone knows me, everyone knows I’m a TO, so it’s safe to assume that the TO was me, but we all know what happens when you assume.

It’s not about “subjecting themselves to an unpleasant experience…” It was a one time thing. You make it sound like it happens regularly. I’m saying that it ISN’T a regular recurring issue.

As for the “justifications”, I’m not justifying anything. I’m simply stating that the environment back then helped develop more mentally tough players. Compared to today’s, mostly online (safe) environment, they don’t know how to handle ‘stress’ in a real, offline setting. It’s a totally new ballgame. It’s the same in any competitive field. You can do fine in scrimmages on your practice field, but when you’re playing at a visitor’s stadium, with all their fans… hello. You’re in unfamiliar territory. So that’s how I feel it’s relevant. Maybe I should used sports to begin with shrug People usually get the gist.

We’ve told and talked to many online players throughout the years and encouraged them to come out. They usually end up enjoying themselves, making new friends, and learning how much different an offline environment is. Just ask Wayne, Carl, and many others whose first time playing at a major was like. And it was at Combo Breaker, CEO, or Kumite in Texas.

While typing, someone posted the clip. So I’ll check it out. Regardless of the content, I still plan to have something in effect to address the heckling issues.

Rotendo

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And if you want to add/toss in more names. Speak to Nicky, Sleep, Rico, Bass, etc… they can all tell you this doesn’t happen often in our community. There is ZERO hostility an false rivalries. All love. All personas, when met in person, are totally different people.

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Zyzx_'s apology to you

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If 90% of people responding say “that’s tournaments man, suck it up” then you can’t turn around and say its a one time thing. There’s a whole cadre of well known players responding to @SonicDolphin117’s Twitter saying “yeah this happens. Bring headphones and don’t be a cry baby.” You don’t need to argue with me about it - it seems like plenty of other people seem to think it’s more than a one time thing.

Nicky has responded on Twitter pretty much saying “this happens all the time. What can you do about it? It’s part of playing in tournaments.”

And when you say this stuff about “mental toughness” and players being used to playing in “safe spaces” the implication is exactly that this occurs all the time and that the problem is just noobs being snowflakes. Otherwise why bring it up? Message received. If you aren’t part of the “in” crowd in the FGC and can’t bring a crowd of people with you to yell down your opponent then stay home. If you actually just want to play fighting games, then you should look elsewhere.

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