Joseph “Mango” Marquez, one of the “five gods” of Super Smash Bros. Melee, is on an unpaid vacation this week after Twitch banned his channel for allegedly drinking too much during a weekend stream and passing out.
Marquez shared the news on his Twitter account, tweeting out a screenshot of the email from Twitch letting him know why his channel was down. “Based on a review of your activity or content, we have issued a Community Guidelines strike on your account,” the email read in part.
It cited “Dangerous consumption of drugs or alcohol” as the reason he was hit with a week-long suspension.
The incident in question occurred while Marquez was streaming Sunday night after watching the Philadelphia Eagles’ unexpected (and thrilling to me, personally) win over the Chicago Bears. It was a wild first-round play off game that ended 16-15 only after Bears kicker Cody Parkey missed a field goal attempt well within his maximum range in the final seconds of the game.
Not only did he miss the field goal, but the ball struck the left upright and the cross bar before bouncing backwards onto the field. And only after Eagles’ coach Doug Pederson used the team’s last time out a split second before Parkey’s first attempt, which turned out to be good, to force a redo.
I’m retelling how the game ended not only because it still feels so good to re-live but also to try and accurately describe the context in which Marquez was getting completely shitfaced and supposedly passed out. Though his channel is currently inaccessible because of the ban, a short clip uploaded to YouTube shows the moment which allegedly violated Twitch’s community guidelines which prohibit destructive behaviour, including “illegal or dangerous consumption of alcohol.”
While Marquez didn’t dispute drinking a lot that night, he did clarify on Twitter that his passing out was just a joke. “For the record..I didn’t pass out on stream.. I jokingly fell over to be funny because I wanted to take a break,” he tweeted. “Went downstairs to talk to my gf and came back and ended my stream.”
DRUNK DECEMBER continues
TILL THE EAGLES LOSE
STAY GETTING DRUNK
— Joseph Marquez (@C9Mang0) January 7, 2019
Marquez did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Kotaku about whether he had appealed the Twitch suspension or how much it was costing him. For lots of pro players in games like Smash Bros. Melee where the payouts aren’t as big as in other esports, streaming during the week can be an important way of making extra money. When asked about situation, a spokesperson for Twitch told Kotaku, “Out of respect for the privacy of our users, we don’t comment on terms of service violations.”
Marquez has still been playing Smash Bros. Ultimate, just not with anyone able to watch.
“Got my roy Luigi and falco to elite in case anyone cares,” he tweeted last night. “:( IM SO LONELYYYYYY I HAVE NOBODYYYYYYYY”
Comments
13 responses to “Top Smash Player Gets Gets Temporary Twitch Ban For Drinking Too Much On Stream”
Seems arbitrary what they consider to be a dangerous consumption of alcohol.
I never watch these things but aren’t there adult 18+ streams?
The terms of service require viewers to be over the age of majority or over 13 with parental consent. But honestly who is reading the ToS. All streams have to follow the same ToS and are not individually rated. How the ToS are enforced is a pretty controversial topic in the twitch community.
In this case seems pretty cut and dried to me. You pass out and fall out of frame. That’s too drunk to be on. It’s a terrible look.
1. He clarified it was a joke, not him actually passing out. This would be supported from the clip, as that is not how someone passing out would have fallen.
2. “Dangerous consumption of alcohol” is an extremely subjective term, and I have NO idea what it is doing in their ToS, as if the term was used in an actual legal document it would be laughed out of court.
It’s up to you if you want to believe that. I for one don’t.
You can see that before he falls, his eye’s aren’t focused and are almost rolling back into his head. You can also see the camera shake because of the force he hits the ground with. If it was a joke, wouldn’t he then spring up to show that he was kidding? I put to you that he does not, because he has passed out. If it was a joke, I can’t see where the fun is crawling out of the room so he didn’t appear in frame and then announcing it later.
I’ve also seen many people pass out, both as a bouncer in pubs/nightclubs and as someone with a drinking problem, hanging out with people who have drinking/drug problems. It looked very real to me.
Also he has every reason to lie (to try and get around his twitch ban) and the evidence, in my mind doesn’t support him at all.
Are you a lawyer at all? All they have to do is define what a dangerous consumption of alchohol is. They have the evidence of him drinking during the stream to start, and he drank until he passed out and fell out of his chair. If that’s not dangerous consumption of alcohol (drinking until you lose consciousness and fall down) then what is?
Not calling you out, just trying to point out the facts that in my mind, mean that I think they had absolutely no choice. And furthermore, if he’s doing this on a regular basis, he’s doing serious, serious harm to himself.
No, I’m not a lawyer, I’m a doctor.
So why do you think he didn’t really pass out?
If you watch his arm and hand as he’s holding his beer, it’s very controlled. He lifts it to avoid hitting anything, and it maintains upright even as he topples to the side. A drunk person passing out would either have lost their grip, not maintained it upright like that, or would not have lifted it to avoid collision, as they do not maintain fluid muscle control. Likewise, if you watch his right arm, the last move before it disappears off-screen is an extension, indicating he is aware of the movement towards the floor and bracing himself to avoid an excessive impact, which would account for the lack of an actual thud of him hitting the floor at the time of impact. The movement of the camera is most likely the result of brushing the stand as he lands, rather than an actual impact event on the ground, as if you watch the timing, it actually starts as he is on the way down, before he could possibly have landed on the ground. All this leads me to conclude that he did not in fact pass out, but is most likely telling the truth about faking it.
If twitch.tv was an australian company that would get you straight to partner status.
Since I can’t edit a post without it going to the moderation queue I’m forced to reply to myself with a secondary comment of :
Lightweight.
You would get legendary prime minister status.
And laughed out loud at this too.
I Actually laughed out loud at this.
The stream only starts with the specific sound clip of a VB can cracking open, it’s to stop bots… or something.