Genesis 9, a major fighting game tournament, took place over the weekend. There were amazing combos and massive upsets like the super major event for Super Smash Bros. Melee and Final ended on January 22. Unfortunately, while the tournament was going on, one of Canada’s top Kazuya players, Michael “Riddles” Kim, sparked a heated discourse in Finals community around “top player privilege” and “ego issues” when he threw his controller after losing a match.
Riddles is considered one of the top Kazuya and Terry nets in Canada and ranks ninth in all of North America. Riddles, who is a member of esports organization Team Liquid, has placed in the top 10 in nearly every tournament he has competed in, with his last first place win coming in the November 2022 Path to Glory tournament in Saskatchewan where he took home around $11. 000 ($15,270) alongside the top spot. In short Super Smash Bros. society sees Gåtor as the goat. So, knowing that he was going into Genesis 9, a California tournament packed to the brim with top talents like Steve player acola and Marth main MKLeo, his eager fans and interested onlookers were waiting for him to perform. He did, but not to the level he, or the game’s community, might have hoped for.
Riddles ended up in the losers bracket after losing a close set to Palutena player Chase. Riddles would win the next two matches in that bracket, only to end up facing France’s Lucina mainstay, Nassim “Leon” Laib. The match started heavily in Riddle’s favor. However, Leon had Riddle’s number on speed dial, as Leon switched to Chrom, giving Riddle some breathing room.
It all came to a head when, in the final match, Leon perfectly embodied Riddles in a spectacular way. Riddles lost that match. After sitting in his chair for a while, frustration clearly visible on his face and his opponent no longer on the screen, Riddles threw down his controller hard before leaving the arena.
People were puzzled by the upset because Riddles was a top seed, meaning he was expected to place pretty high. However, Leon is ranked 77th. The odds were always in Riddle’s favor, as evidenced by the faces of those around the two players. Besides congratulating Leon on his victory, most people were stunned by what happened. There were a few who took pictures of Riddles squirming in his chair, but most everyone else in the immediate vicinity was shaken.
It is this brief moment that has ignited Super Smash Bros. community to discourse about appearing in a professional setting.
“You throw the controller,” one tweeter said to Riddles of all sizes. “Do you know how much you make people suffer? You lost [and] was played by a neutral character. You just cheese people at 0 like that [fuck] of.”
“It’s called holding people accountable,” another tweeted said. “Something this community needs more of actually.”
“Doesn’t matter if he’s humble, he still had that moment,” a third tweeted said. “If you give him a pass now, 9 times out of 10 it’s going to happen again. Just stop the fam lmao. Everyone has those moments, we get it, but shrugging like this just shows why top player privilege 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 angry” and that he’s “a little baby” who needs to “man up.” Others laughed at the incident, while a few people mememed his name and called him “Shittles” instead. One person even said that the Riddles have “crazy ego problems” for reacting this way. Sheesh.
This is because Riddles mains Kazuya Mishima, one of the Tekkens protagonists, the 81st fighting part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s Fighters Pass Vol. 2, and an infamous character in the game’s scene. Kazuya is a combo-heavy fighter i Final, primarily relying on his Electric Wind God Fist to stun his opponents and take some heavy damage. Kazuya, and this stunning move in particular, has been the thorn in society’s side, too Final players who regularly ask for Kazuya (as well as Steve from Minecraft) to be banned from tournament use. In short, Riddles gets a lot of hate because of the character he plays, and his loss to Leon and the resulting on-camera blowup was an excuse to get laid—to the point that Riddles ended up deactivating his Twitter account.
Kotaku contacted Riddles for comment.
In Twitter DMs with Kotaku, Leon said he was both afraid of and motivated by Riddles, ready to face him in the Genesis 9 competition. However, Leon did not anticipate beating Riddles and said he was “very surprised and shocked” to do so with his secondary character, Chrom. He also wasn’t entirely surprised by Riddle’s reaction to the outrage in hindsight, although he didn’t entirely agree with his opponent’s behavior.
“[Riddles’ reaction was] completely [unwarranted] in some kind of big competition. It’s easy to see,” Leon said. “Throwing your own controller to [release] frustration isn’t the best move, but that applies to him and himself only. As long as he respects his opponents (which was the case with me) there is nothing particularly disgusting [about what he did]. I would be sad and frustrated to come out of the tournament so early as well.”
Not everyone pulls Riddles for how he appeared on Genesis 9. Several top players, from former competitor Yonni to big player Justin Wong to Aaron Wilhite of Moist Esports, defended Riddle’s actions. It’s kind of ironic when you think about it, because a few days before Genesis 9 started, an Italian. Smash the player was banned from tournaments going forward after literally beating his opponent during a live stream. Riddles, on the other hand, took his frustration out on an inanimate object and announced that he would be taking a long break in his Discord. I’m not entirely sure what the community wants from Riddles, or top players in general, but asking them to be robots and show no emotion just isn’t it. I mean, I still throw my controllers away sometimes because video games make me mad. It’s human nature, right? At least Riddles didn’t take it out on his competitor.
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