I see a lot of discussion in here. I don't really have in interest in talking about this issue publicly because although this happened at Cross Assault, this is more of an issue of people and less of an issue about the show. this just happened to happen at cross assault, but it happens all the time, all over the world.
Aris and Miranda are both very kind, very real people. They were placed into a super high tension situation, and both cracked under pressure.
The main point and issue here is that comments made by Aris added to her tension and pressure. Since those early comments, he apologized to her directly many times, and genuinely seemed concerned for what he had done. His own stress accumulated over the course of the show, and looming over his head the entire time was this issue as well, which im sure added to it. Even he did not realize the scope at which he would be vilified for his comments until we discussed them being talked about on major sites.
Before I continue I would like to point out that yes, there are a lot of OG players with an OG mentality. You could call that an 'old guard' but that isn't really the truth. these guys just enjoy Fighting Games and want to continue enjoying them, and all aspects of why they enjoy them, including the gritty, competitive atmosphere they remember facing in the early days when they first began playing competitively.
What Aris did was wrong. He has sincerely apologized both to Miranda and publicly on Twitter. This is a harsh life lesson for him, someone who enjoys his own uncensored nature, to realize just how bad his words and his egging someone on can hurt another person. In a sense this is about "growing up". and Yes, the scene is growing up, as much as people do not believe it. But it will take a long time for the scene to really come together and understand what growing up is all about. Lessons like this are ones that will need to be learned, so people can see their mistakes and recover from them.
Last year around this time, I made some very controversial statements about evo and level up, which I am sure a lot of you guys remember. though at the time that was how I felt, afterwards i really realized the damage my statements had caused, and I apologized sincerely. It seems to me my apology was accepted, as I was allowed to be a part of the team for evo that year.
All I am saying here is yes Miranda was hurt by what Aris said, but we need to give Aris a chance to recover from this lesson. this is not about removing the R-Rated nature of the FGC, because that to me appears to be unnecessary and is not in my current plan for any of my big events. However it is about also knowing how much damage your words can do to both a person's mind and heart, and also to the scene.
I hope that we can stick together, and all learn this lesson together. Sexual Harassment is a bad thing, and much like things like stealing, & murder, is just in some people's human nature and can never be completely stopped. However if we can make it so people understand both sides I think that will help. Everyone has their own opinions about life and the world, and I do not want to censor their opinion, rather I would like to inform them of the pain a harsher type of thing like harassment/bullying can do to another person, so that perhaps they can understand and change.
I guess this was wordy and not every expressive in the end. Even I have made sexist remarks at times, but over time I've learned to be more sensitive to women, and hopefully others will too. and if they dont choose to, that is their prerogative, but at the least keeping those views private to their own following and not the general public can help.
