Update(7/19/16): The Global Smash 4 Leadership Group announced that Medina is banned from competing in all future Smash Bros. tournaments until 2017, with a possible second offense bringing a lifetime ban.
Cristian “Hyuga” Medina, a professional Super Smash Bros. player, is accused of sexual assault by another Smash Bros. player, alias VikkiKitty, at EVO 2016. The incident occurred early Sunday morning.
“I fell asleep next my boyfriend on the bed and I woke up to Cristian in between my boyfriend and I, rubbing against me and sliding his hands up my shirt and another down my pants”, says VikkiKitty, in a Twitter post. According to VikkiKitty, she switched places with another friend in order to stop Medina, but he allegedly continued soon after until he was eventually kicked out of the hotel room by Nick Riddle, another Smash Bros. player.
Medina claims he has no memory of the night’s events, in a series of direct messages to Riddle on Twitter. He also blames the incident on drinking too much alcohol. Medina’s Twitter account has since been deleted.
The backlash from the fighting game community has been swift: Medina has been dropped by his sponsor VGBootCamp, who has since released a statement:
“This afternoon we heard accusations that our player, “Hyuga”, groped a woman of the Smash Bros. community sometime early this morning as she tried to sleep. After talking to all parties and witnesses involved we believe that these accusations are true. Although he was heavily intoxicated during the incident there is absolutely no excuse for his actions.
Starting immediately, Hyuga will no longer be a representative of the VGBC pro team. We want to set a precedent for all teams and sponsored players in the smash community to say that these actions will not be glossed over and ignored. To be absolutely clear, as of right now, we have dropped Hyuga from our team completely.”
Several other members of the fighting game community (FGC) are calling for Medina to be permanently banned from all tournaments in the future.
While Vikkikitty did report the incident to police, she states that she will not press legal charges against Medina in an additional Twitter post, wanting to focus on her Smash Bros. career and avoiding possible stigma.
“I do not want this situation to dwell above my head for a long period of time. I made a tweet about the situation to spread AWARENESS. I do not want this to happen to ANYONE ELSE. The judgement of the community will take it’s turn with this situation and hopefully bring more awareness to tournament safety. If I go through with further legal action, I will never be allowed to go to another out of state tournament, again. Coming from a Hispanic family, they will never let me travel out of fear for my safety and I do not want to bring them any worry. Thank you to everyone sending me your support, I appreciate it so much more than you can imagine.”
