Last night, over 1,000 players signed up for the Coinbox Street Fighter VI Tournament, hosted and organized by pro Smash Bros. player Hungrybox. In this match, racism was attributed to both players being broadcast live throughout the game.
Initial speculation suggested hackers bypassed security measures and changed players’ pronoun tags to racial slurs, knowing they were supposed to play under a competitor’s name. However, after digging deeper into the situation, it was pointed out that there was a technical glitch in the software used to automatically pull player information from tournament lists and place them. Ultimately, Hungrybox apologized to the two affected players, Punk and XSpoonX.
The technical glitch was initially dismissed as a joke, as players from both sides knew about it ahead of the game. Start.gg, the tournament site used to organize events, allows players to set their own pronouns on the accounts they use to sign up for tournaments like Streetbox. The software used by tournament organizers is designed to scan for player accounts on stream, displaying their accurate information, such as their name, Twitter handle and pronouns, and displaying them on stream.
Somehow, even though Punk didn’t have pronouns set on his account, the software apparently went back and pulled the pronouns used by another player who had attended the event a few months earlier. Punk and XspoonX were unaware of the bug throughout the game, and the racial slur kept appearing under Punk and XspoonX’s names until they were taken offline.
Punk tweeted his displeasure with the situation immediately after the game. Hungrybox, the face of the competition, was unaware of the glitch, and the initial reaction was to point out the automatic nature of the software. Recognizing that punk has no pronouns at all, let alone racism, This was later blamed on malicious hackers.
At this time, the situation has attracted the attention of the online community, and they have begun to understand the situation in depth. UK-based Smash Bros tournament organizer and commentator Rekka dug into Start.gg and found that the pronoun was taken from a Canadian player named Blacktwins. Why them?Appears to be tournament organizer for July 2022 Canadian event Heaven’s Arena never finished their game, which has been listed as lasting over 476,000 hours.
For some reason, the software being used takes the pronouns from Blacktwins and applies them to Punk and Spoon. Blacktwins will continue to apologize on Twitter despite not being at all at fault for the situation.
After preliminary judgment as a technical failure, Ele.me publicly stated that it would no longer use the software that caused the problem. However, this did not curb criticism, as many felt that someone on the team should have spotted and removed these pronoun tags earlier. Producer Tenomedia HonzoGonzoa media company responsible for broadcasting live broadcasts of various major fighting game events, is one such person, saying: “Yeah, it’s 10,000% legitimate for punk to feel any outrage, it has to go through so many people to get it aired. A string of Mistakes should be immediately accountable for, rather than random guesswork about what happened.”
The result of all this? Punk Says He Will No Longer Attend Coinbox EventsHe’s rightfully frustrated with the situation – it’s one thing to choose labels for yourself like Blacktwin – but it’s quite another to force them on you without your consent. During his stream, Punk further expressed his displeasure with those who took the part of Hungrybox on his stream.
Hungrybox will eventually apologize In the long thread after the eventHe’ll say: “Today was far from perfect. Aside from the fact that this is the first time we’ve run a non-platform fighter, I feel like I’ve failed as a race organizer. I feel like I’m more familiar with organizing broadcasts and productions, a lot of unfortunate The situation could have been avoided.”
“A lot of it came down to me trying to do everything at once – streaming, TOing, casting, entertainment and production. Whereas in Smash, it was something I was more comfortable with, it was a whole new ball game. In other words – I feel like I should have checked three more times.”
“Instead of assuming pronouns are trolls/bits, I should have taken them down ASAP. Also – I should have noticed that the program was glitching before it even showed up on the screen. I rely too much on automation. @PunkDaGod – this is mine. Not my employees. I apologize.”
They will continue to leave the future of the Coinbox fighting game event in the hands of the community, announcing their intention to take a step back for now. While that’s a good sentiment, it’s like the online fighting game community has some council of elders who can force players not to participate in Hungrybox events in the future. As a popular influencer, he can easily organize crowded events with or without the support of some respected players. Street Fighter VI, in particular, has proven to be hugely popular.
With the future of these special events in limbo, this event will hopefully serve as a warning to future organizers to monitor streams for inappropriate content. It’s certainly a tough show, but there are some missteps that you have to work through.
For more Street Fighter 6 articles check out these articles on Drive Impact, which is proving to be a nightmare for Street Fighter 6 players, and whose modern controls are some of the best the series has ever seen training tool.
