Smash Bros. Melee pro Plup smurfs in online tournament forcing organizers to lower prize money

Justin "Plup" McGrath has never been known for being a bad influence on the Smash Bros. community, if anything else, he keeps mostly to himself and his Twitch audience without any toxic behaviour - however, he might've put some of that well-earned goodwill in danger.

Plup has upset many in the FGC community. (Picture: PandaGlobal)

Right after the Rona Rumble East Coast, tournament organizer Brandon Collier expressed his disappointment at the fact he had to deal with players smurfing, one of them being the Genesis 5 champion.

Plup, alongside notable Florida smashers like Forest and Colbol, shared an account to enter the netplay tournament, tampering with the bracket, causing several issues for TOs and players registered.

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This is usually not a big deal, as one can attest by watching many of Gonzalo "ZeRo" Barrios' videos doing so, like the one smurfing a Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma organized tournament for example.

Big issue here is context. Plup and the rest weren't meddling with a sub-only tournament, but rather a community-driven attempt at maintaining a competitive scene amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Rona Rumble tournament boasted a prize pool of $200, plus player bounties, meaning any registered entrant that hasn't been ranked Top 100 could win an additional $50 if they could pull an upset over a top Melee pro.

Plup's antics sent ripples throughout the bracket, causing more upsets than expected, prompting Collier to decrease the money earned per bounty to $30, with a high likelihood of them being less valuable further down the line.

Understandably, people in the community were severely upset at the Florida smashers for messing with the only viable way of competing. Rishi, one of the affected entrants, was very vocal about his distaste for the entire situation.

"Normally I just brush this stuff off, but Plup taunting me every stock, trolling me on Discord, it all just rubbed me the wrong way."

Eventually, Plup had to apologize to those affected, claiming he didn't think it would be a huge deal.

"We expected to just be kicked out of the event if the TOs didn't want smurfs, and there wouldn't be much fuss."

It'll be interesting to see if the Smash community takes any action against it, especially after EVO's announcement of an online edition, with Smash Ultimate set to be part of the lineup.

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