TSM Smash Pro Gets Heckled to The Moon At DreamHack 2019 While His Opponent Allegedly Gets Coached

TSM Smash Pro, Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey went up against Carrington “Wrath” Osborne in a non stream Smash match at DreamHack 2019 for 13th place. Tweek took the Twitter after all was said and done to share a statement about the conditions in which he played and what was going on, on the other competitors side.. Tweek claims that he’s no stranger to being heckled but the issue was the hecklers were inches away which his opponent got coached “verbally and physically.”

I debated posting this because nothing is really going to change and it’s going to really hurt to see people arguing technicalities and shit when I’m just saying what happened. Even if any of the things I said didn’t happen there’s layers to this that are against the rules

— TSM FTX Tweek (@TweekSsb) November 17, 2019

Whether you want to think me mentioning the physical contact is weird/petty or whatever you want to call it. This is something that coach’s do in sports all the time in between games/rounds. It’s a form of coaching whether you want to harass me for saying it or not.

— TSM FTX Tweek (@TweekSsb) November 18, 2019

I refuse to deal with this anymore if I’m just going to get harassed/death threats and people who were there are going to deny it. Along with people from that area/were there being the ones doing the harassment. I’m fucking done. I cannot be sane on this app

— TSM FTX Tweek (@TweekSsb) November 18, 2019

My first thought goes to the idea that these are competitive players, in a competitive setting. Fans get passionate, they chant, and talk shit to the player that they don’t want to win, and overall get loud and ignorant. It’s been happening in professional sports since the beginning of time, and with the rise in this $1 billion dollar industry of esports, it’s inevitable that it’ll happen there. In the non stream stations, there are no headphones provided – which would be expensive af for TO’s to supply. But the issue here isn’t the noise. The problem is the proximity that the spectators can be to the players. They can literally be inches away, which can get overwhelming and frustrating. And while the spectators can be in your hair, that also means coaches can too. Right? And it’s not like you need a headset to talk to your player, you can literally just talk a little louder than usual. I wasn’t at the tournament, so I don’t know if it actually happened.. But I do know that coaching mid set should not be allowed. A lot of tournaments have that in place with consequences, and if you see it happening it’s up to the TO’s to stop it.

With rules, regulations, and consequences in place, you just have to do something about the distance spectators can be. Put a piece of fucking tape on the ground if you can’t put up a divider. Have the TO’s on the prowl, and let these players play without getting hot breath and spit on the back of their necks.