It was the chair that was heard around the world, or at least around CEO 2024. Alex ”Dyloch” Ruiz had just taken his place in the Mortal Kombat 1 grand finale of the fighting game tournament being held in Florida when he decided to stand up, grab his chair and casually hurl it into the crowd – perhaps one of the least exciting and most devastating moves in the history of fighting games.
The damage occurred at the end of the Winners Bracket. Ruiz, playing as General Shao, had just defeated Curtis “Rewind” McCall’s Reiko, sending his opponent to the Losers Bracket. As the chair was thrown out of the ring, it hit a lamp, sending shards of glass flying through the air. According to CEO 2024 organizer Alex Jebailey: The equipment was worth almost $3,000.
“Does anyone know @RezDyloch’s PayPal because someone is paying for this broken light and it’s not me,” he said tweeted. continuation“If one more person throws anything, you will be banned from any event I ever do. This is a final warning to everyone in the future. Don’t throw things.”
The tragedy, of course, is that Ruiz, although he MK1 Grand Finals, which ended up being a rematch against McCall, his winnings from the event were only $565. It is unclear if Jebailey actually plans to make Ruiz pay for the damages or if he has insurance to cover him and if he was just taking advantage of the unforeseen moment to promote his event. The CEO 2024 Twitter account itself seemed to exploit the chair throwing for laughs and online influence. Some viewers were ultimately unsure What should we make of all this controversy?.
However, many fighting game fans pointed out Smash Bros. Professional player Juan “Hungrybox” DeBiedma is notorious History of chair throwingwhat some people consider a cool expression of his personality and the drama of the competitive scene, others consider dangerous and silly. It seemed a great double standards with the way some in the fighting game community treated the two examples, although at least in DeBiedma’s case, no $3,000 lamps were damaged in the process. Still, grown people probably don’t need to throw things indiscriminately, no matter the circumstances.
Ruiz, meanwhile, seems to be satisfied with his victory. “YOUR MICKY GENERAL IS CEO CHAMP!!” he tweeted after the tournament. “By the way, I’m taking responsibility for the light. AFTER ALL, STRENGTHEN THE GENERAL, IDC, LET ME RUN IN MY MIDDLE!!”
Update 03.07.2024 08:48 ET: It turns out the damage wasn’t as bad as originally feared. CEO organizer Alex Jebailey reported on social media that the light only needed to be repaired and not replaced. The total cost was $365.44, less than Ruiz’s total earnings.
“He took full responsibility for the prosecution and I am glad that a full replacement was not necessary,” Jebailey said. wrote. “So he’s fine in my eyes and I hope we learned from it. You should only withdraw in grand finals, not as a winner. Whoever updated this Liquidpedia can update it again now that CEO is no longer the only tournament where a player had to cash out instead. As a reminder, I’m all for withdrawals and hype moments, but not with something that can fly and hurt someone else.”
This means that Ruiz will not be able to MK1 tournament, this means that he earned less than his opponent in second place, McCall. Jebailey added that the winner could still emerge victorious depending on the level of his viral tweet about the incident.
