Why was I banned? Well, I was never given an official statement from any of the mods or admins. I wasn't actually DM'd or tweeted at after my ban, just that it was obvious cause I was removed from the Kirby Fighters 2 Discord. I'll let you all know what I've pieced together based on word of mouth and screenshots I've seen at least. This happened in April or May of 2021 (can't remember exactly which month). I told a player to shut the fuck up or $100 money match me, then posted the screenshot to Twitter in a now deleted tweeted saying the KF2 community is a bunch of pussies. I thought it was stereotypical trash talk, but I was met with a lot of backlash + being informed the player I said that too was a 14 year old girl. I didn't know she was 14 cause KF2 is entirely an online community, so you don't really know what other players look like. Upon finding out she was 14, I deleted the tweet and apologized. But by then the damage was done. At the time, I had no idea my ban was going to be permanent cause I hadn't received any statement yet and coming from the Smash community (which I've been in since 2008), you generally only get permanently banned if you *** offend, get physically violent or steal, which I had done none of. So I thought it'd just be a few weeks or months ban. The next day, I get told by several people (none of which were admins or mods IIRC) that my ban was going to be permanent. Apparently they were discussing it in public channels in the KF2 Discord, so I had Qwertz (the Europe/Asia TO or Tournament Organizer) relay to me what they were saying as well as some things I wanted to say. Winters (the owner of the KF2 Discord, also going by Zyvon at the time) said that I had been "problematic for years" and "harassing her friends". As well as "dangerous to the community". It eventually got to the point that Qwertz shared a screenshot with me or Winters saying that I'm not in the Discord for a reason and if he's going to keep showing me what they're saying, their conversation is over. From what I can gather about the following: "Problematic for years" I've been in the Smash community since 08 and have never been banned from a tournament. So I can't 100% know where this comes from, but my guess is that it has to do with having an unhinged Twitter and being in several Smash rage videos. I've never really had a Smash TO tell me to stop tweeting what I'm tweeting. And pretty much all the Smash rage incidents have been handled behind the scenes with me getting a warning, being told to apologize or paying back for venue damage, which I've paid back. As for the harassment thing. For maybe 2ish months, there was a player who was a good friend of Winters who was doing really well in KF2 tourneys at the time, and I'd constantly subtweet (never tagged him, rarely said his name) that he was dog shit, carried, whatever way I could belittle his achievements, I would. I also said the KF2 community sucked (not skill-wise, but just personality-wise and how they talked to me. This is explained more in depth in my tired of being belittled video) So these tweets are what I assume were in the category of harassment and dangerous to the community. This however had been going on for about 2 months and I never received a warning or was told to stop, so I just assumed this was stereotypical trash talk. However after the ban, I had seen this said by multiple people to have been a reason for my ban. If I knew it would have gotten me in trouble, I would've stopped right away. So I don't know if they had some sort of "shadow strike" system on me to use this as an excuse to ban me while building up a case for it behind my back. Maybe it was a "morality check"? Maybe they wanted to scout me to see if they thought I'd stop on my own or not and use that to judge if I'm a decent person or not? I have no idea. You feel free to be the judge. In the screenshots I saw, Qwertz also said brought up what I said was typical trash talk too and even brought up that Leffen and Hbox say the Smash community sucks and they've never gotten in trouble for it. To which Winters responded "This isn't Smash". Keep in mind, I actually rarely even talked in the KF2 Discord. The STFU or $100 money match me incident was in Discord DMs (that I posted to Twitter however) And the rest was entirely tweets, none of which was on the KF2 Discord. I'm not saying I do or don't deserve a permanent ban, but I'm saying what I do know about my ban, as I've had to piece it together from word of mouth and screenshots, as I was never given an official message about them. And you may ask, why don't I just smurf with a VPN since KF2 is an entirely an online game? Well, I have two reasons. 1. The game has an extremely small playerbase. The last "major" KF2 had was 18 people. If someone randomly shows up out of nowhere and plays the same characters as me and wins or gets top 2, it'll be obvious it's me, so that's pretty pointless. 2. I want KF2 to have an offline scene. I was prepared to work all of 2023 saving almost all my paychecks, so that in 2024, I could reach out to Smash/FGC majors that are open minded about having more games and offer to pay out of pocket 5-10K for a pot bonus for KF2 as well as offer to buy/provide 20+ Switches with KF2 and everything unlocked. But I can picture these emails or talks in my head. They're gonna want to know more about the community, so I'm gonna have to link them the KF2 Discord. They're gonna bring my name up and the KF2 Discord mods/admins are gonna be like "Don't work with Poyo, we banned him for harassment." Then those business deals will be cut off. I want to have a civil relationship with the KF2 Discord, so there's no animosity or shit like this happening, and smurfing will just make that worse. Anyway. If you really want an official statement, feel free to ask Winters or Theo (to my knowledge, the current owners of the Kirby Fighters 2 Discord) Winters' Twitter: @Winters_FGC Theo's Twitter: @theosmeo