Combo Breaker 2026 was one of many greatest non-EVO preventing sport tournaments of the yr, with completely different nationalities flying in to expertise the occasion. However behind its huge success, there lies an issue in the neighborhood that, whereas lowered, persists within the darkest corners of the FGC.
Yup. I’m speaking about harassment of girls within the FGC.
This has been a scorching matter within the FGC for fairly a while now, and for good motive. What sort of neighborhood lets issues like this occur and turns a blind eye to it? The pandemic lockdown was the time when the neighborhood began cracking down on sexual harassment circumstances. Whereas quite a lot of them have already been handled post-COVID, due to the ladies who had the braveness to speak about their expertise, it doesn’t imply that the entire thing is gone.
Instances like these nonetheless exist, and I imagine it’s time the neighborhood begins cracking down on them once more.
Combo Breaker 2026’s Incidents Ought to Be The Final
In a tweet posted on Could twenty third, Jax shared her expertise with somebody who tried to take an upskirt image of her whereas cosplaying as Emilie De Rochefort, often known as Lili, from Tekken.
I reached out to Jax to ask for extra particulars relating to the incident, and she or he talked about that it occurred whereas she was ready for her 2XKO set. Whereas standing there, she determined to repair her cosplay, and that’s when the offender struck.
Fortunately, she had a pal together with her who stepped in the way in which, basically blocking the man, who then proceeded to run away. Sadly, neither she nor her pal had any thought who the offender was.
Miranda “Super_Yan” Pakozdi, one other lady who attended the occasion, additionally skilled harassment, however this time, from the workers. In response to a tweet she posted, she was handed a spectator badge as a result of she’s a girl, regardless that she mentioned she’s a competitor and has been one for nearly twenty years.
In a subsequent tweet, she talked about that this had occurred to her a number of instances and that she made the put up as a result of it was so frequent. Whereas she understands that a number of the folks working in tournaments, particularly in main ones, are volunteers, it doesn’t change the truth that these sorts of conditions made her uncomfortable.
In response to her: “Years of this and each time it’s a message that I don’t appear like a preventing sport participant, or I don’t belong right here, or I’m to not be taken severely. It doesn’t really feel good!”
FGC and Sexual Harassment within the Pre-COVID Period
Throughout our interview relating to the Combo Breaker 2026 incident, I requested Jax whether or not she had skilled harassment prior to now 5 years at locals or tournaments. She talked about that there hasn’t been any blatant harassment post-COVID. She added that nothing outwardly loopy or dangerous had occurred to her just lately till the Combo Breaker 2026.
I additionally requested her concerning the worst case of gender discrimination she skilled/noticed, and that’s the place she talked about that it wasn’t time to be a girl within the scene pre-2020.
She mentioned it was again when she performed Tremendous Smash Bros. Final, and guys would “by accident” kick her chair as they walked previous her when their pal was down a inventory. She additionally talked about that there have been instances when she needed to purposefully lose her units as a result of she was genuinely afraid of some male opponents’ reactions if she had really received.
Sadly, throughout that point, her expertise wasn’t an remoted one. In 2020, the Tremendous Smash Bros. neighborhood skilled a #MeToo movement wherein victims of abuse stepped ahead to reveal the dangerous apples. Jax was one of many girls who stepped up and uncovered her abuser. Exterior of the Tremendous Smash Bros. neighborhood, the higher FGC additionally suffered an enormous blow when Evo 2020 was canceled as a result of sexual misconduct allegations towards its co-founder, Joey “MrWizard” Cuellar, surfacing.
Discrimination within the FGC Is Ingrained within the Tradition
Discrimination like this doesn’t seem out of nowhere. There needs to be some sort of tradition that has clung to the neighborhood’s roots and has been normalized to the purpose that individuals simply don’t consider it as offensive, particularly to newcomers to the scene.
An article by Ars Technica published in 2012, named “Is pervasive sexism holding the skilled preventing sport neighborhood again?” offers us a peek at what the tradition was like again then. The article discusses Aris Bakhtanians, a competitor-turned-commentator-turned-streamer within the preventing sport neighborhood.
Throughout a Cross Assault occasion, a actuality show-style competitors the place two groups struggle one another in Road Fighter x Tekken matches, Bakhtanians made inappropriate remarks relating to Pakozdi’s bra dimension and even mentioned that he had a want to spy on her within the girls’s rest room, ultimately resulting in her being creeped out concerning the interplay.
Pakozdi confronted him about his habits, however she mentioned it was apparent that the Bakhtanians didn’t actually care.
When requested about his inappropriate feedback, Bakhtanians talked about that “these are jokes and if you happen to have been actually a member of the preventing sport neighborhood, you’d know that,” and that “it is a neighborhood that’s, you already know, 15 or 20 years previous, and the sexual harassment is a part of a tradition, and if you happen to take away that from the preventing sport neighborhood, it’s not the preventing sport neighborhood — it’s StarCraft.”
[Editor’s Note: I’m not surprised to hear rhetoric like this. The FGC prides itself on being raw, authentic, rough around the edges, and real. It’s not a polished scene with over-the-top productions. It comes from dudes grinding in grungy arcades, not caring they are ‘nerds.’ But let’s not bring the sexism aspect of that nostalgia with us.]
Nonetheless, Bakhtanians’ tone modified following the backlash. In a press release he supplied to Ars Technica, he apologized for what he mentioned: “I sadly used excessive examples within the warmth of the second and really feel that my statements don’t really talk how I really feel.”
Despite the fact that Bahktanians ultimately apologized, this was a large inform concerning the tradition again then. The Ars Technica article even talked a couple of girlfriend of Jared Rea, a Twitch Group Supervisor on the time, leaving the venue of a preventing sport match after listening to the viewers hurl misogynistic or homophobic feedback contained in the match corridor.
Jax additionally weighed in on this once I requested her why she thinks discrimination towards girls remains to be a factor within the FGC. She talked about that she believes it’s from older males who miss the “good previous days” when gaming was nonetheless a boy’s membership. She additionally provides that youthful males additionally fall for that poisonous nostalgia, which solely provides to the issue.
Jax additionally mentioned that as a substitute of reflecting and rising from their actions, some males merely channel their anger into disliking the ladies who’ve entered their “membership.”
“As a substitute of acknowledging that girls becoming a member of the scene has enabled progress and accountability and safeguards which are inherently good issues for the gaming neighborhood/trade as a complete, they simply suppose ‘Properly, again in my day none of this existed and wouldn’t be related if issues had simply stayed the identical.’” Jax added.
What Wants To Change?
I feel everybody (regular) in the neighborhood agrees with me that no lady needs to be harassed, whether or not bodily or sexually, within the FGC. Nonetheless, it nonetheless occurs. Certain, folks can say that these have been freak accidents or remoted incidents, however that’s simply washing your arms of the truth that they nonetheless occurred. We, as a neighborhood, needs to be ashamed when issues like these happen at our occasions.
With that being mentioned, what wants to alter? Pakozdi talked about in her tweets that security needs to be the precedence. She provides that individuals ought to cease assuming that girls solely attend preventing sport tournaments as an extension of their companions or males typically. Issues like that may go a good distance and make them really feel like they belong.
Jax, however, went after those that enabled the harassment within the first place. She mentioned that males ought to maintain their buddies accountable for sh*tty habits and eradicate the “boy’s membership mentality.”
She mentioned: “No extra ‘it’s only a joke, no extra ‘that’s simply how he’s’ or ‘nicely, he’s my boy.’ Don’t excuse or allow poor habits simply because it’s your pal or somebody who occurs to be good at a sport.”
Girls Ought to Nonetheless Attend FGC Tourneys, However Be Protected
With all of this mentioned, I nonetheless requested Jax if she thinks girls ought to attend preventing sport tournaments, and her reply is a convincing sure. She mentioned that these are such enjoyable experiences that she solely discovered within the FGC, and that “the nice closely outweighs the dangerous for my part.”
She additionally added: “You meet new folks from throughout, you will discover artists and small companies to assist, you get invaluable information and apply at video games, you’ll be able to attempt so many new video games. I may go on for thus lengthy about all of the great issues about FGC majors, each I’ve personally attended has been an overwhelmingly constructive expertise.”
Nonetheless, she additionally mentioned that girls ought to go along with buddies and folks they belief.
“It’s no completely different from being at a con or live performance or every other large-scale occasion in that regard,” Jax instructed Esports Insider. “So many conditions that completely may have gone worse have been subtle by having buddies round to step in or have my again or work via after the very fact.”
Lastly, I requested Jax if she had one thing to say to her fellow girls who’ve been harassed within the preventing sport neighborhood: Right here’s what she mentioned:
“I’m so sorry, and please know that you just’re not alone. There are such a lot of great, form, supportive, and caring folks within the FGC who’re right here to assist.
“Please preserve talking up about harassment and discrimination. It’s the one means we are able to get the phrase out about it and get it addressed and hopefully corrected. Even in simply the final 5 years, it’s unbelievable to see how a lot the scene and occasions have improved by way of security and inclusivity. It will probably and can proceed to get higher and higher.
“Even with my unlucky expertise at Combo Breaker this yr, the outpouring of concern and assist and love, I don’t suppose I can put into phrases how heartwarming it was that so many individuals cared. Individuals I’d by no means met or solely knew in passing got here to verify on me, which by no means would have occurred if I hadn’t spoken up.
“And it additionally inspired others to be extra vigilant — folks have been on the alert to look out for themselves and their buddies, understanding that there was somebody being creepy. Yeah, it shouldn’t have occurred within the first place, however contemplating how vocal everybody was condemning that habits, I really feel way more assured that it’ll be much less prone to occur once more sooner or later.”
We Have The Duty to Cease This
We needs to be vigilant to make sure the ladies round us are snug. There’s no excuse for sexual harassment or any of this type to exist in the neighborhood, and we needs to be ashamed that it has existed longer than it already has.
I do know, some folks will say that they’re not right here to do feminism or politics and that they’re in the neighborhood to simply play video games, however that’s the factor. They additionally need to play video games. What’s stopping the FGC from making it an pleasing surroundings for them, too?
On the finish of the day, all of us simply love preventing video games, and what higher technique to take pleasure in preventing video games than to share them with the folks round us?
