1/ Everyone seems to be acting like this is a problem with the smash community or “gamers”, but let’s be very clear about something. These are problems endemic to our country and our culture in the US.

What we don’t do in the smash community is protect our vulnerable members.

2/ Smash is a community where everyone is a “peer” regardless of age. From a 9 year old to a 40 year old, all are just an attendee of an event. It’s true attendees are diverse in terms of race, gender and orientation, but it is predominantly an adult, cis, straight male culture.

3/ It is also a culture that is woefully understaffed and underfunded. It is also a culture that is encouraged to “live, eat, breathe” smash bros. It is also a cult of personality, where players get elevated to a level of celebrity or even revered as “gods”.

4/ And it is a culture where it’s relatively easy to obtain a position of power over another member.

This all leads to an environment where abuse can easily be done, and our vulnerable community members are left unprotected.

5/ We let our kids mingle with adults on “equal footing” and be unsupervised. As a TO, I have promised parents that I would keep an eye on a kid left in my care and that nothing could happen to them. But as my duties of running the event took over I couldn’t keep an eye on them.

6/ The women brave enough to attend an event have an uncomfortable amount of attention unleashed upon them by men. What actual recourse do they have when they are harassed or abused? What will the culture of smash men do in response? What are the consequences of doing so?

7/ Our queer members are also susceptible. Verbal abuse goes unchecked, and is heaped upon trans and non-binary folk. I’ve seen gay sexual harassment happen before my very eyes at events, committed by both gay and straight people.

8/ We have seen that abuse comes in many forms, and anyone is capable of it. What we have not done,is worked to protect people from it. The CoC does a great job, but it is punitive and only comes into play post-incident. We do a poor job with education, and protection at events.

9/ There are measures we could take. The Pokémon Company has leagues for its VGC and CGC events, separating younger children from teenagers from adults. We could have safe spaces at majors for women and queer people with support staff.

10/ But we as a community need to take this moment and educate ourselves about harassment and abuse. How to recognize it, how to stop it, how to not commit it yourself.