Professional Super Smash Bros. player Justin ‘Plup’ McGrath has responded to backlash over his “smurfing” in a tournament, after rampant criticism from the competitive Smash community.
The Rona Rumble online tournament was held to give Smash competitors a place to showcase their talents while LAN tournaments aren’t available, with a small entry fee that brought together some of the top names in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Now, though, it’s been revealed that top players such as Plup, Forest and Colin ‘Colbol’ Green were “smurfing” in the tournament, using the same account to play matches and essentially sharing the matchups between themselves.
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After it came out, Plup spoke during his Twitch stream to apologize to fans and the Smash community, addressing the criticism head-on.
Laughing about it, Plup explains that they were essentially alternating matchups, playing whoever/whenever they wanted to and “smurfing the f**k out of the tournament,” adding that he was even taunting opponents throughout.
Finally, he added that he was “astonished” by the reaction people had to competitors smurfing in the tournament, saying that tournament organizers should just kick smurfers if they have a problem with it.
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Earlier in the stream, though, he did begin by apologizing for his actions, saying that he “lacked awareness” and hadn’t even considered the effect something like this would have on tournament organizers.
He adds that he didn’t mean to cause the hassle he and his peers caused, saying that he’s “sorry” for doing so.
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While some online suggested that it wasn’t that big of a deal, the majority of Smash fans took huge issue with Plup and co. smurfing, which likely explains why he had to come out and apologize.
It’s not clear what this means for the tournament itself, but the organizers will likely just have to take extra precautions the next time they run an event so as to stop this from happening again.
