A 15-Year-Old Girl Defeated A Pro Smash Player; Now She's Being Bullied Out Of The Scene
A few weeks back, a relatively unknown Smash Bros. player named Bocchi took the world by surprise when she managed to beat pro player Ally at AON #27, a local Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament held in New York.
Now the attention she's received — namely, the harassment she's been forced to endure at the hands of the Smash community — is causing her to leave.
"[F]inal tweet from this account," Bocchi wrote on Tuesday. "I will either be done with smash or begin competing under a new name to avoid this attention i've gained. I will stop streaming and find my path by myself. Do not expect me to be bocchi anymore. I'm done. If i do come back to the community."
Bocchi did tweet again today just before we published, stating, "so everyone knows, i'm safe and still have access to my account. im not hurting myself and i am feeling okay."
It's true that Bocchi gained a bit of notoriety from her upset of Ally. A lot of it had to do with the fact that she's a 15-year-old girl, playing a space that does have some female competitors but is largely dominated by men. She also got props for her use of Isabelle. The Animal Crossing character is considered by many in the Smash community to be "low-tier," so beating Ally (who used Metal Gear Solid's Snake) with Isabelle won her a lot of praise.
"For defying the odds and proving a point in the insular world of competitive Smash, Bocchi is my hero today," wrote a commentor on Kotaku.
"Imagine being a 15 year old kid, and in one set against one player, you completely reignite the meta of a character. This was crazy," wrote another on Reddit.
But not everyone was thrilled about the attention Bocchi was getting for her victory.
"Puppeh, who's 16, beats Nairo, Abadango, Esam, and Samsora at basically an S tier and has gained like one follower," complained Goblin, a Smash player who is ranked at least Top 30 in the United States. "Bocchi, who's a 15 yr old gamer girl, beats Ally at a local winners side and gains 8K."
"Gamer girl will always get a following for anything impressive if that's not obvious by now idk what is," another user said in a reply to Goblin. "I'm out b4 the white knights appear."
Unfortunately, it seems the bad has outweighed the good over these past few weeks. Despite the outpouring of support Bocchi has received today — and the disappointment some have expressed toward the Smash community at large — the digs and disrespectful comments appear to have won out. A promising young Smash player wants to walk away from the game entirely because she had the audacity to beat a pro. And that says a lot about where we are today, that rampant toxicity can exist unchecked not just in gaming communities, but all over social media as a whole.
It's a real bummer, because there are very few feel-good stories anymore. They warp and twist into something else toward the end. And that really needs to stop.
We'll keep you updated should we learn more about Bocchi's future in Smash.