There's Just One Tiny Thing: Racist Behavior Plagues Area Surrounding CEO 2018's New Venue

The Community Effort Orlando (CEO) tournament series is undoubtedly one of the best case studies for the ever-increasing strength and growth of the fighting game community (FGC). If that’s not clearly demonstrated through the sheer hype it generates on Twitch and Twitter each year, then the dramatic increase of entrants for each subsequent tourney should make it evident.

Player participation has increased so drastically (rising overall from around 350 in 2010 to over 7,300 this year) that Alex Jebailey, CEO’s founder, and the rest of the team moved this year’s venue from the 7-year-staple that was the Wyndham Orlando Resort (where it became so packed that the venue’s air conditioning started losing the battle against the blazing Florida heat) to the Ocean Center, a gorgeous, 200,000-square-foot venue in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Reception for the tournament’s new venue, as with the series itself, has generally been overwhelmingly positive. Unfortunately, however, there were a handful of factors that neither the CEO staff nor the entrants could control, which included racist behavior displayed by several Daytona locals.

Numerous attendees have testified to this in greater detail on Twitter.

San Diego’s Jose “Sway” Cervantes, a Mexican-American Super Smash Bros. Melee player with history in speedrunning, shared the following statement with us regarding the disrespectful speech he had to endure while riding with a local Uber driver:

“I had called an Uber, and within seconds, (I must have just said ‘Hi, is this the Uber for Jose?’) he opened up by saying ‘Wow, you speak much better English that I thought a Jose would.’ and instantly I had a red flag go off.”

Sway’s story quickly became even less pleasant as his driver continued:

“He then went on to talk about his war buddy, who was also named Jose, who knew very little English and went on a rant about that. [...] He was speaking really highly of his granddaughter and was super proud of how good of a runner she is. He then says something along the lines of ‘Our genes are so good she even beat all the Black girls in the 100-Meter.’ and at this point I was actually really bothered.

He had an American flag hat on and kept on ranting on the subject talking about their roots and how he always knew she would be a good athlete because of where their family comes from. This all happened in a short span of 8 minutes because I was housed really close to the venue.”

There were a number of other attendees who testified to experiencing a strong air of racial prejudice in that part of Daytona Beach as well. Echo Fox’s Dominique “SonicFox” McLean, who is renowned for being one of the most gifted Injustice 2 and Dragon Ball FighterZ players, tweeted the following out in regards to his experience roaming around the new location:

I do definitely think the area should be addressed next year @CEOJebailey for CEO. The area as a black man made me highly uncomfortable with the amount of openly racist shit there. The venue is 10/10 but something should be done here.

— SonicFox (@SonicFox) July 2, 2018

Jason “ANTi” Bates, CEO 2016 Champion for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, tweeted this out:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

The momentum for these complaints doesn’t stop there. These tweets generated an abundance of replies from other entrants who attest to similar dissatisfaction and discomfort in Daytona.

Method Gaming’s Ryan “SylverRye” Amaechi also spoke about his own mistreatment and compiled the statements of several others, which generated a lot of feedback.

After SonicFox’s statement on the matter, Alex Jebailey himself responded:

I’ll bring it up in my venue meeting later today to discuss. I’m sorry

— Alex Jebailey (@Jebailey) July 2, 2018

Jebailey then spoke more on the venue’s initial selection and how seriously he is taking these claims:

I plan to meet with the city to see what can be done to help ensure CEO's attendees are provided the sense of security they expect from CEO, both inside the venue & outside. I don't have answers today, but I'm listening & willing to try anything I can to make CEO perfect.

— Alex Jebailey (@Jebailey) July 2, 2018

Jebailey’s earned himself a great deal of respect within the FGC for his work on CEO. For example, Sway closed out our conversation with a sentiment that many members of the community seem to share:

“CEO overall was an amazing event and I commend Jebailey for all his efforts and the like. He addressed the city’s problems pretty rapidly and I have the utmost respect for him as an organizer. [...] For one thing, I can say that I am extremely happy that he acknowledges these problems and doesn't brush them under the rug. It takes a true leader to do that and it gives me a lot of faith in the event moving forward!”

One thing is for certain: we at Smashboards will be keeping an eye on the evolution of CEO from this point forward, and we sincerely hope that Jebailey is successful in his efforts to improve this situation for his attendees.

(As of now, SonicFox, ANTi, and Alex Jebailey have been unavailable for direct comment.)

 

Is the level of racism something that greatly varies by area? I've lived in one place my whole life, so this is a genuine question for those that have witnessed a difference.

I live close to Milwaukee and at my college I saw crime reports over a river.

At home and at my college it was all a-ok. Going over the river to riverwest in Milwaukee, it was like night and day.

It does depend a lot where you are.

 

Except, uh, it is actual racism. And being black doesn't give you special authority on anything. And "Don't let it bother you, it's just words" is bafflingly ignorant. You think words don't have power? You think the Civil Rights Act was passed because a bunch of black people walked around indignantly while making mouth noise? Holy.

Read a book sometime.

Compare someone calling you a name to someone physically violating your human rights as shown countless times if you choose to keep your eyes open to these things. People physically keeping you from doing something on the basis of your skin color and even calling the cops because of that fact. Keeping you from economic opportunities and privileges is racism, not mean words. If words were the worst thing to deal with, I guarantee you things would be a lot better. Words only have power if you give it to them. And for what it's worth, the Civil Rights Act actually hurt black people more than it helped them. Look up Dr. King mentioning how he brought his own people into a nightmare. Not to mention the black family structure was considerably strong before integration.

I repeat from someone who deals with racism every single ****ing day: If words were the worst I had to worry about, blacks would be in a much better position.

And P.S., I only mentioned being black because if I didn't, someone would have accused me of being insensitive and ignorant of someone's else's struggle. Mentioning my race is relevant and proves a point, whether you like it or not.

 

And for what it's worth, the Civil Rights Act actually hurt black people more than it helped them.

And there you have it, folks: Alternative facts.

The CRA has a clause that also forbids sexual discrimination. I guess it hurt more women than it helped, too, huh? Maybe we should just get rid of the legislation wholesale! /s

 

And there you have it, folks: Alternative facts.

The CRA has a clause that also forbids sexual discrimination. I guess it hurt more women than it helped, too, huh? Maybe we should just get rid of the legislation wholesale! /s

Alternative facts my ass. Look up Dr. Claud Anderson and read some of his books (I doubt you will), as I have. This rabbit hole goes deeper than you think and without assuming your race or jumping to conclusion, you're very ignorant on these matters, though that's to be expected.

More proof on your ignorance, the Civil Rights Act helped women more than it hurt them. In fact, blacks benefited very little from it in comparison to other groups. I repeat, look up Dr. King talking about how he led his own people into a nightmare, not that I expect you to do so, as your entire argument will crumble as a result. Stick to video games and leave the adult matters to the adults.

 

Alternative facts my ***. Look up Dr. Claud Anderson and read some of his books (I doubt you will), as I have. This rabbit hole goes deeper than you think and without assuming your race or jumping to conclusion, you're very ignorant on these matters, though that's to be expected.

More proof on your ignorance, the Civil Rights Act helped women more than it hurt them. In fact, blacks benefited very little from it in comparison to other groups. I repeat, look up Dr. King talking about how he led his own people into a nightmare, not that I expect you to do so, as your entire argument will crumble as a result. Stick to video games and leave the adult matters to the adults.

>the deeper the rabbit hole goes
muh conspiracy buzzwords

This is single-handedly one of the dumbest things I have ever read and I don't even want to bother giving it a reply but I know that somehow, somewhere some gullible person is going to stumble upon it and use it as evidence on /pol/ or something that racism isn't a problem.

The Civil Rights Act guaranteed that you wouldn't be discriminated against as a consumer and (at least laid the groundwork for) equal opportunity employment. You could still be kicked out of a restaurant or other place of business for your skin color if that "harmful" legislation never happened. And that's not even counting how emboldened it made civil rights advocates of every stripe. LGBT issues, feminism, racial rights advocates, just about every slice of the civil rights pie suddenly knew that their causes had a shot of making legislative gains. Even if the act itself wasn't as sweeping or as "powerful" as it could have been, the shockwaves it sent were important in the larger scheme of treating everyone as a human being.

To say that is somehow better than where we are now is delusion at best and willfully ignorant contrarianism at worst. You're damn right that your race is relevant, in fact it's just about the only thing you have to back up your asinine "logic." Pity for you that ignorance knows no color.

But please, continue to act smug and self-assured because you're some freedom fighter going against the grain while all us brainlets continue to believe that the sky is blue.

But that's just once facet of your proud idiocy. Let's go over the fact that you still think racism, and probably discrimination as a whole, only matters when you beat somebody up.

News flash, creating hostile environments is not good for mental health. "Mean words" are one way of doing that. Go live in a room where everybody hates you. You have to spend every day there. They might never touch you, but you'll know that you're not welcome. I can already see you puffing up your chest like "oh well I wouldn't care hurr hurr ur point is dead." But basic psychology proves otherwise. It's pretty well documented that when you feel unwelcome, you feel miserable. And when you feel miserable, especially systematically, it does very damaging things to you.

So yes, the targeted bullying (or as I said in another post, just a hostile environment) is just as damaging as having your rights taken away or suffering physical violence. And don't you f******* dare tell me otherwise because I've lost several friends to suicide for that very goddamn reason.

Shut the hell up and think about what you say before you say it.

 

Holy assumptions and triggering, Batman! Where to start?

“This is single-handedly one of the dumbest things I have ever read and I don't even want to bother giving it a reply but I know that somehow, somewhere some gullible person is going to stumble upon it and use it as evidence on /pol/ or something that racism isn't a problem.”

What does /pol/ have to do with this? So everyone who isn’t a safe-space advocate is from /pol/? And I never said racism didn’t exist, not that I’m saying you’re saying about me. But I digress.

“You could still be kicked out of a restaurant or other place of business for your skin color if that "harmful" legislation never happened.”

Did you know that black people are still being kicked out of businesses just for being black and no justice or reprehension was given as a result? TheAdviseShowTV covers a lot of stories where this occurs, check his channel out when you're done being triggered. So much for that bill.

“To say that is somehow better than where we are now is delusion at best and willfully ignorant contrarianism at worst. You're damn right that your race is relevant, in fact it's just about the only thing you have to back up your asinine "logic." Pity for you that ignorance knows no color.”

Everything I’ve said is based on my own experiences. And yes, ignorance knows no color, case in point – you.

“But please, continue to act smug and self-assured because you're some freedom fighter going against the grain while all us brainlets continue to believe that the sky is blue.”

Funny, your buddy James was the one acting smug acting like a freedom fighter and calling people pricks just because they said something that was taught to millions of kids in kindergarten. I thought name-calling and personal attacks were against the rules, but not if it lines up with the views of the moderation team, it seems. Whoops. All I said was words are just that – words. He brought civil rights into the equation in an attempt to make this molehill into a mountain.

“But that's just once facet of your proud idiocy. Let's go over the fact that you still think racism, and probably discrimination as a whole, only matters when you beat somebody up.”

It does. Know why? Words are just that – words. I don’t care if someone calls me a name. I can do the same to them. It goes both ways. The person who intends to hurt me verbally can get it just as bad if not worse. Funny enough the people who do that often can’t take what they dish out. So if someone calls me a ******, I tend to call them what they are based on what I see. Shocking, huh? I’m not worried if someone eggs me on with words. It’s when they
intend on hurting me physically is when I take issue. Remember this quote?

“Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never harm me.”

Funny how that saying seemed asinine and childish yet in hindsight it’s the one thing a lot of these progressives fail to follow, going back to what I said before – Words are just that, words.

“News flash, creating hostile environments is not good for mental health. "Mean words" are one way of doing that. Go live in a room where everybody hates you. You have to spend every day there. They might never touch you, but you'll know that you're not welcome. I can already see you puffing up your chest like "oh well I wouldn't care hurr hurr ur point is dead." But basic psychology proves otherwise. It's pretty well documented that when you feel unwelcome, you feel miserable. And when you feel miserable, especially systematically, it does very damaging things to you.”

You’re right. In the United States of America, that’s a common factor for black people. Everywhere we go in this country we face hostility. My grandparents were lucky if mean words were all they had to deal with, and I dare you to tell what you spewed out your ass to my grandma or grandpa. I’ve been in those rooms you mentioned, and still am (Hint hint). I do care, because when you keep talking about these mean words, I realized at a young age, I was taught to not worry about those words, but the actions instead. When I grew up, it was like a revelation and a breath of fresh air and also it taught me to pick my battles. Do I fight over a petty matter or do I assess my options and scenarios? And you mention psychology and it should be known that mental health in the black community is a very taboo and overlooked pandemic, yet the many blacks I have met, live with, associate and know deal with racism every day, yet not one of my circle of people, friends and family have had in instance of suicide or even humored it, myself included and I'm as cynical as it gets, HMM. I wonder why that is.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

“So yes, the targeted bullying (or as I said in another post, just a hostile environment) is just as damaging as having your rights taken away or suffering physical violence. And don't you f******* dare tell me otherwise because I've lost several friends to suicide for that very goddamn reason.”

I'm gonna tell you otherwise, snowflake.
When you have to worry about being shot by the cops simply because the son of a ***** behind the badge felt scared for his life, or you’re denied access to a store because of your skin color or denied jobs and economic resources and privileges or actively monitored by whites who feel it’s their duty to police black people by association of being white and us being black or seeing time and time again that being black means you can have your life taken away and the murdering ******** get acquitted and given praise, accolades and commendation for their actions, words are probably the least of our problems. And since you brought up your friends, if words caused them to kill themselves, they wouldn’t last a day being black. They get no sympathy from me.

In short, don’t dictate a damn thing to me when you know nothing about the real life struggles of a group who go through worse than a mere insult. If ONLY words were the only thing we had to worry about.

***** please.

 

Holy assumptions and triggering, Batman! Where to start?

And yes, ignorance knows no color, case in point – you.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

I'm gonna tell you otherwise, snowflake.

In short, don’t dictate a damn thing to me when you know nothing about the real life struggles of a group who go through worse than a mere insult.

***** please.

What are you getting so worked up for? You're just dealing with words, after all. :-)

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

I thought name-calling and personal attacks were against the rules, but not if it lines up with the views of the moderation team, it seems./QUOTE]

Words are just that, words.

Critical Hypocrisy Levels Reached

 

So instead of breaking my argument down like an adult, you're just a troll who can't refute my points.
Understood.

 

So instead of breaking my argument down like an adult, you're just a troll who can't refute my points.
Understood.

You mean not answering points like that MLK quote you pulled without providing a source? :-)

Wish I was smart like u