TW sexual harassment/assault
A former NYC Melee player snuck into GOML and was kicked out of the event earlier this weekend
This player prior to the event had FIVE separate instances of sexually harassing people, has been (for different offenses) banned from THREE separate local Melee communities (Ottawa, NYC, Gaylee), and today decided to accuse the NYC Melee TO team of defending a former top player from sexual assault charges
For full clarity: this player making the accusation was sexually assaulted by a former top player in the scene, multiple victims with witnesses reported instances of this player's actions. The former top player did not dispute any of these claims when he was informed of the ban and has not had any presence in the community since. One of the victims wanted nothing released on this as she did not wish for any potential harassment or counter actions taken from vindictive community members.
The player who was kicked out of GOML was banned from NYC Melee for sexual harassment from a victim with two additional witness testimonies, of which none of them wished for any personally identifiable information to be released. Complying with their wishes protects victims from potential harassment and is not a conspiracy to get someone banned for no justifiable reason.
There is an unstated amount of work that goes into looking over bans from underpaid volunteer TOs who signed up for the job to run tournaments. These are not professionals, these are volunteers who have passion for the game and their local scenes. When cases of this nature happen it falls under those TOs to keep their communities and the victims of these incidents safe. The average player does not have the right to, or need to know, every single detail that happened in these cases. Victims should not have to re-live their trauma and subject themselves to harassment just so every single person in the scene can cast judgment on whether or not a player deserves to be banned for their actions. I don't know why this is considered a controversial opinion.
There is definitely a long way to go to make this community safer but to downplay the work that these TOs have done to create an inclusive community is is crazy, especially when the reasoning is that it's to defend a banned top player who was originally banned to protect our community members.
I have nothing to gain from defending NYC here, I left the TO team a while back when I was handling things in my personal life. I just don't wish for the efforts that our TOs put into protecting our scene to be downplayed or tarnished by someone making false claims about a justifiable ban on a player, especially when it's coming from who has overstepped boundaries on multiple occasions and endangered numerous Melee communities over the last few years.