Smash is no stranger to controversy, with the recent past featuring a lot of angry mooing about people doing things they shouldn’t, but it must have come as a surprise to Weston ‘Westballz’ Dennis to find himself at the centre of a shit storm after doing what he should and playing pretty much perfectly in Sunday’s Grand Finals at Mayhem. The Falco main has struggled with his motivation and mental game in the past, but any fan of Melee knows just how amazing he is when on form and playing at full speed because they’ve seen him play that way, so it was a real shame when his virtually flawless win over Cloud9’s Joseph ‘Mang0’ Marquez at Mayhem was overshadowed by unproven allegations of Adderall abuse The fallout hasn’t quite settled yet, but in the immediate aftermath of the event and accusations there were all manner of people sharing opinions.

It is true that the person who publicised the rumour on Twitter is not a player, but was at the tournament, as Mang0’s partner and the mother of his child sub-tweeted a pair of messages that never explicitly mentioned Westballz, but were apparently directed at him, both of which used the word ‘Adderall’. Clearly the reaction to her actions has not been as she would like, as she backed away from the tweet, first saying it ‘wasn’t even aimed at him’ before making her Twitter account private, but even with that the message spread and Westballz was somewhat dragged through the mud.

‘If you have to take Adderall to win at Smash, you’re lame’ –‘ Shoutouts to the chemists who created Adderall thank u for sponsoring Smash’

In terms of the direct accusation, spending too much time analysing the behaviour and play from the tournament would only lend credence to the rumours that they frankly don’t deserve, but as a long-time admirer of the fastest Falco going there is one point that absolutely needs to be made. Westballz has beaten Mang0 on many occasions in the past, making the result more plausible that some would like to admit, and we’ve seen him achieve that level of Falco play in the past too. Were Hugs to pull out a super-technical Fox then the objections and suspicions would make sense, but in this case speed and accuracy is literally what the player is known for throughout the scene.

It is important also to point out that this is a different issue than it would have been if Mang0 himself had made the accusation, and a different article as a result. Then, we would have been discussing Westballz and his innocence or otherwise, and maybe beating the ‘no johns’ horse a little bit more, but with the way things unfolded this is more about communication than drugs themselves, and the impact a negative or harmful tweet can have not just on one player, but maybe even the entire scene.

Obviously Adderall in eSports is nothing new, and some of the top games are way ahead of Smash in terms of dealing with it and preventing abuse at the top level. In League of Legends, currently the dominant game in the eSports scene from a financial and player point of view, Riot made a point of stamping out any drug abuse as soon as they came into the game officially in 2013, and today the highest level is relatively, if not totally free of Adderall abuse and other chemical advantages. While they come in for some criticism, Riot are not stupid, and the move was an intelligent one with the long-term value of their game in mind.

Back to our game, and not all Smashers were so keen to jump onto the Addy-wagon. Some of the more level-headed and intelligent reaction came from the likes of Leffen, who was careful to say he makes no claims about Westballz, but also believes that sooner or later Smash might need to take a more professional stance on the issue.  From the outside, the most glaring point at this stage of the conversation was that not all of the people involved understand how sport deals with the problem of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) or the process of first identifying and then testing subjects, before releasing the information to the public.

It is important to say that although the reasoning of ‘oh, that was just a general tweet’, and the backing away from accusations that people associated with Mang0 indulged in might have been enough to rescue the ‘GOAT’ from a fine in the real world of sport, there is the overall matter of bringing the game into disrepute, which some bodies are very hot on. Regardless of where they come from, the implication was obvious to anyone who read the tweets, and the timing of them clearly has the potential to cast aspersions on someone in their moment of victory. In a bigger, better and richer scene, Westballz would have the financial ability to defend himself and could easily seek damages, which is only right and proper as throwing around accusations is incredibly harmful for the game, but at this point he neither has the finance nor the motivation to try and seek compensation.

In case it’s not obvious, the main reason many governing bodies include punishment for people who accuse others without reason is twofold. Firstly, it is damaging to the reputation of the player involved and can cause them monetary loss in their professional field, something that has already been speculated about with the player in question currently looking for a sponsor. Worse, though, it hurts the game itself and potentially the earning power of every player, including the greatest, as sponsors do not seek to get involved with unclean or unsaleable areas. We’ve seen this time and again in sports, from athletics to snowboarding, and the reputation of Smash is hardly bulletproof, so these kinds of hits are not going to help.

This is not to say that Twitter should be censored, or people prevented from giving an opinion, but it is a plea for more maturity and thoughtfulness in the community as a whole, and a recognition that we are all in this together. We’ve heard a lot recently about how Project M is bad for sponsors, but if Smash overall as an area has a poor reputation how official a game is will make zero difference to patrons, and could even prompt Nintendo to prevent their games from being streamed. After all, they are trying to promote a family-friendly image and sell games to all generations, not create the Ben Johnson 100m on gamecube controllers, and these days there are families being supported by the Melee scene, so it matters that bit more.

As for the issue of PEDs themselves, we’re a long, long way from Smash being able to potentially test for and deal with that, and there would be no point trying to run a word of mouth system whereby people are banned without concrete proof as it would fall foul of the first person with the means to challenge a ban. The lack of an overarching ombudsman or ‘owner’ in the way Riot act for LoL also makes it harder for any sort of real rule or ban to be enforced, meaning that in the short term it needs players and TOs to deal with it in a mature, intelligent fashion. Pretty much the opposite of what we saw yesterday then.

Image credit: Frank Boston, Citizen59 || If you enjoyed this content, feel free to follow the author at @Fatal1tim for more.