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Top player in the FGC caught on camera groping a woman at a tournament

I often wonder how much stuff like this goes on at these tournaments, there's always been rumors, and given the attitude a lot of pros displayed during the Aris stuff I wouldn't be surprised if it would be an a generally uncomfortable environment for women.
 
Can you post both messages? Some of us are at work, so can't see Facebook.

Sure

Combo Breaker 2016 :

Hmmmmm I don't even know where to start to be honest. It seems like every time the internet has a chance to crucify me they do. I'm used to being the bad guy and I'm used to being hated in the fgc but I actually sat back and thought about all the reasons people actually hate me and its really insane to me. No one has ever bothered to uncover the truth about anything but yet they have stoned me to death time and time again. I can put on a smile and laugh every day knowing that I do have a great life beyond the FGC but thinking about how much of a bad reputation I've gotten over the years for non sense that I could've easily explain but didn't so I CAN MAKE OTHERS NOT LOOK BAD has gone on long enough. You can read this and form your own opinion on the subject. There will be another post following this one about what actually happened at CEO and the aftermath of it. This first will address the incident that took place in Chicago at Combo Breaker. First and for most, it was not a random isolated thing. We were playing around as you can tell, she clearly laughed in the video after it happened. Of course people will blow things out of proportion and make them seem like they're something they're not which is definitely the case here. I don't understand how someone else calls sexual harassment on someone else's behalf if they're not any of the parties involved. Actually all three (her, her boyfriend and I) of us drank and ate pizza together that night after seeing the screen shot. No one ever wants to hear the truth because controversy is always more entertaining but despite what comes of this I still want the truth to be out there. The below screen shots are of the said "victim" (even though she clearly says it wasn't a big deal) and I texting. I know the monsters will some how find a way to turn this around and I understand that. Like I said, the truth just needs to out there. By the way. if you can't figure it out I'm the yellow text. The first box has a screen shot of the conversation she had with the TO about the matter. Also the saturday night comment refers to her touching me in the same area while we were at the bar.

There is a lot of screenshots, including that one (Noel is in yellow)
13325645_10154214539401823_6960934923497601629_n.jpg

CEO 2013 :

Now for what everyone has been wanting to hear me talk about for 3 years now, CEO 2013. What actually happened and not all that he say she say bull that comes along with the community. Long story short, Thursday night my ex and I get back together after being broken up for several months. Friday night, I couldn't find her and she wasn't answering her phone. I remembered seeing her hanging around my friend a lot throughout the day and as I looked through the crowd of people watching the UMVC3 3v3 tourney, I realized that he also was not present which was weird seeing as how he's a marvel player. I go up to the people staying in his room and one person told me he had diarrhea so he went to the room and I said I left a bag in the room and magically, everyone who was staying in the room lost their room keys. So I go to the room and knock on the door to try to gain access and no one answers. Then when the finals are over, the roommates staying in the room come into the building and act as if they weren't going to the room and tried to walk past it. I stopped them and told them I needed my stuff out the room and that they need to open the door. They magically found a room key and tried to open it but the lock was on. I told them to go to the front desk to get someone to open the door and at that point they knew that I knew what was going on so they did. The maintenance man comes back and and he's able to open the electronic lock but the door only opens half way because the latch is on. He said that theirs definitely someone inside because you can only put the latch on inside but he can clip the latch if we want him to. I immediately said yes and when I said that, everyone from the room decided they wanted to go wait by the pool so they left and the maintenance man realized that he needed to go get a large set of clippers to cut the latch. So im waiting in the hallway for him to return, the door is still propped open a little bit and I can hear moans getting increasingly louder so I got really upset and pushed the door open and the latch broke off (I didnt have to pay for it since he was about to clip it anyway). I see my girlfriend and my friend having sex and he immediately stands up and just starts saying sorry. I punch him and we began fighting around the room. The fight only lasted about 45 seconds because my girlfriend then tries to break up the fight by getting in the middle mid fight while we were both throwing blows. Once i realized she was hit I, I stopped and went outside to get the people that were staying in the room so they can help them. I went in the bathroom, got a towel for both of them and told them I was going to tell the TO what happened. I went to the main ballroom and explained the situation and waited for the aurthorities. Once they arrived, they told me that my friend didn't leave a statement because he didn't want to be involved and they can only go off what my girlfriend said happened which was that I intentionally hit here, not that she was hit by both people while trying to break up the fight and I'm taken away. After I get out, I try to resolve the issue with my friend but all that ends up happening I end up not saying anything so that both parties save face and I just end up looking like the bad guy. Then I get a slew of text messages from my now ex girlfriend telling me how sorry she was, how she wants to go to couples counseling and how shes going to kill herself if I don't get back with her. The below are all text from both people showing conversations between my friend (the green and white text) and my girlfriend (the imessage text)

There is way too much screenshots for that one.

(If it's not okay for the moderation, just tell me and i'll edit)
 

autoduelist

Member
Disgusting. Especially if they weren't close friends/lovers or had some sort of arrangement. I don't know man. It's hard for me to justify it in any way because it would be a really, really rare and weird case where it would have been ok.

Wait.

You say: "Especially if they weren't close friends/lovers or had some sort of arrangement. I don't know man".

If they -were- lovers, or close friends, etc, then for all we know they do this back and forth all the time. Some people actually like public displays of affection. Some people like to do -way- more than this in public.

I'm not saying this case is okay by default [it probably isn't] but I'm really struggling to see how you have reduced it to a "really, really rare and weird case where it would have been ok". If they were dating, there's a decent chance it was innocent. If they weren't, then, yes, it's likely it was molestation, with room for exceptions on either side.

Let's not create a world where kissing your SO without asking first is a crime.
 

HDNA

Banned
Couldn't she be a friend of his? I can't really see the reaction on her face.

Disgusting if she isn't.

and it's disgusting even if she is a friend.

stuff like this will keep the shitty gamer trope. "BREAKING NEWS, GAMER GROPE A WOMAN"
 

DONJONJ

Neo Member
Did you miss the giant blue bubble where she says she meant unexpected? Also apparantly she did it to him first according to the rest of the convo.

Nope, I didn't, but unwanted was still her initial reaction to it. She had time to type it out.
 
So he thinks he's the victim in all this.

Classic Noel.
At the very least, he's trying to set up the messages (and post them) to make himself look better.

I'm surprised he's still welcome in the community after punching another player in two separate occasions (with the police getting involved the second time when he assaulted his ex-girlfriend and another tournament-goer she was with).
 
At the very least, he's trying to set up the messages (and post them) to make himself look better.

I'm surprised he's still welcome in the community after punching another player in two separate occasions (with the police getting involved the second time when he assaulted his ex-girlfriend and another tournament-goer she was with).

Yeah this guy should not be allowed to compete or come to events. Ridiculous.
 

Hex

Banned
Pretty rude of her to share the texts between the TO and herself.
I think it honestly now comes down to "I can stand ground and make an issue and be a pariah (my word she does not sound like the type to have a large vocabulary) or I can play it cool and have an in with the cool people at the events."
And it sounds like she went for B when it should never have happened.
Like has been said, unwanted is unwanted. "huh huh we were drunk and enjoying the weekend" is really a slippery slope.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
So:
  • Girl touches Noel the night before because she's drunk and they're friends
  • Noel playfully returns the favor as captured on camera
  • Girl is absolutely ok with it and she even apologizes to Noel for misspeaking to the TO
Am I missing anything? I hate Noel as much as the next guy, but I think it's hard to make a case against him here.
 

DONJONJ

Neo Member
So:
  • Girl touches Noel the night before because she's drunk and they're friends
  • Noel playfully returns the favor as captured on camera
  • Girl is absolutely ok with it and she even apologizes to Noel for misspeaking to the TO
Am I missing anything? I hate Noel as much as the next guy, but I think it's hard to make a case against him here.

The very beginning of her conversation with TheHadou seems to be missing, but from what *he* understood the overall message was that she didn't want to be touched and he even reiterates that.

As far as the TO is concerned, if she was not okay with being touched, then that's all there is to it; he's got to go. That's not a call she can make.
 
The very beginning of her conversation with TheHadou seems to be missing, but from what *he* understood the overall message was that she didn't want to be touched and he even reiterates that.

As far as the TO is concerned, if she was not okay with being touched, then that's all there is to it; he's got to go. That's not a call she can make.

i would agree but given that sometimes friends don't know boundaries and stuff until something happens or is told in advance.

from the screenshots it seems that he was reciprocating something she did in jest (and he was fine with) but she was not fine with receiving in hindsight (in a public setting).

this might have been a first test of a boundary that happens every day and we just had to have it on camera with a very divisive individual. Noel Brown is not one of my favorite people, but i'm trying my best to not let my thoughts on him give him undue judgement from being a third party to something that happened between two parties that was already settled.
 

DONJONJ

Neo Member
i would agree but given that sometimes friends don't know boundaries and stuff until something happens or is told in advance.

from the screenshots it seems that he was reciprocating something she did (and he was fine with) but she was not fine with receiving in hindsight.

this might have been a first test of a boundary that happens every day and we just had to have it on camera with a very divisive individual. Noel Brown is not one of my favorite people, but i'm trying my best to not let my thoughts on him give him undue judgement from being a third party to something that happened between two parties that was already settled.

I wouldn't reciprocate anything remotely sexual from someone who did it while they were drunk, let alone someone who's in a relationship; that's just common human decency.

That kind of thing can happen with a open relationship, maybe? But that isn't mentioned anywhere, only that it got "sorted out" between her, Andre and Noel.
 
Noel is a piece of shit regardless of who did what here but if he's touching a girls ass and it's his buddys girlfriend he's in the wrong. Expecially in the manner that he did it.
 
I wouldn't reciprocate anything remotely sexual from someone who did it while they were drunk, let alone someone who's in a relationship; that's just common human decency.

That kind of thing can happen with a open relationship, maybe? But that isn't mentioned anywhere, only that it got "sorted out" between her, Andre and Noel.

yeah but that's you. you don't know their specific relationship other than guess work.

if the stuff posted by noel is genuine (and i am hesitant to fully consider so given he has a history of not thinking straight) then all of this reaction is paramount to making someone an example for a bigger problem just because of their preset notions.
 

WaterAstro

Member
Sure

Combo Breaker 2016 :

There is a lot of screenshots, including that one (Noel is in yellow)

CEO 2013 :

There is way too much screenshots for that one.

(If it's not okay for the moderation, just tell me and i'll edit)

There it is. It was done in a friendly manner as they were uuuh somewhat companions.

I honestly knew there was more to it than that gif implies, but the community always jumps the gun with prejudice with evidence for that moment.
 
I was good friends with this girl in college, and we used to "Tom Thumb" each other. Meaning, we would sneak up behind each other in social settings and jam a thumb in to the other's butthole.
 

Terrell

Member
This whole "she did it first so it's OK" line of thinking is stupid. Sexual harassment is not a tit-for-tat thing. Doing it back does not balance things out.
Clearly no one has come out ahead from doing it.
 

pizzacat

Banned
If what he posted is true and not forged (like him just sending texts to himself) then there's nothing really wrong with that. Kinda sucks that he did it on camera is all
 
You shouldn't cape for all women with these blanket statements. I don't know where some of you went to college but for my campus sexual physical contact was as common as a handshake between guys and girls.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
The event organizer responds:
https://combobreaker.org/2016-incident-statement/

On May 29 at Combo Breaker 2016, an incident occurred where a female attendee was groped by a male attendee, confirmed to be Noel Brown. This incident was caught on film, and the victim – who has asked not to be named – has since provided a statement to event operatives confirming and outlining the inappropriateness of Mr. Brown’s behavior. Due to the nature of the offense, Mr. Brown will not be permitted to attend Combo Breaker’s 2017 and potential 2018 events. Combo Breaker will re-evaluate Mr. Brown’s eligibility to attend our events in 2018.

Harassment will continue to have a zero tolerance policy at Combo Breaker events. Be considerate and respectful of all attendees.

Thank you.
 

Anne

Member
Yuo, Noel actually got banned. First time somebody has been banned for something like this at a major afaik.
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Yuo, Noel actually got banned. First time somebody has been banned for something like this at a major afaik.

I can't think of anything else since the Dark Prince era.

It's pretty overdue in this case. I'm the type of person who's usually skeptical about this stuff and has a disdain for how narratives and gossip tend to take precedence over the facts when it comes to drama, but I've also met Noel Brown enough times to know that he's the kind of guy who'd probably do this even if he was explicitly told not to. He treats people like shit.
 

Durden77

Member
This is the kind of stuff the FGC has so much work to be done in. I love the FGC, and I don't want all of the stuff that makes it unique and fun to be eliminated because of esports yo. But at the same time there's some genuinely bad habits and standards that the FGC has and has a lot of trouble addressing.

We don't have to lose our soul, but certain things that are simply right and wrong should just have to go or be changed. We've been stuck in a middle point for so long with this shit.

Way to go combobreaker. That's a good step.
 

daTRUballin

Member
Why would you even do something like this? Especially to a stranger? Did he really think he could get away with something like that and that there wouldn't be any consequences afterwards?
 
So:
  • Girl touches Noel the night before because she's drunk and they're friends
  • Noel playfully returns the favor as captured on camera
  • Girl is absolutely ok with it and she even apologizes to Noel for misspeaking to the TO
Am I missing anything? I hate Noel as much as the next guy, but I think it's hard to make a case against him here.

If this is it, then I see no problem.
 

JamesAR15

Member
Something doesn't add up, based on that Combo Breaker comment it sounds like the girl was not cool with this.

As always there's 3 sides to every story...
 

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Oh wow, they actually banned him? Hopefully this helps trigger some sort of epiphany within him.

If a stint in jail and getting on the wrong side of anyone not in his clique didn't already do it, why would this be any different?

Look how he played off CEO as if he was the victim.
 

Alienous

Member
So:
  • Girl touches Noel the night before because she's drunk and they're friends
  • Noel playfully returns the favor as captured on camera
  • Girl is absolutely ok with it and she even apologizes to Noel for misspeaking to the TO
Am I missing anything? I hate Noel as much as the next guy, but I think it's hard to make a case against him here.

Is this the fact-checked version? It seems benign, like a friendly callback instead of a sexually charged thing.

But I don't know, it seems like the above wasn't the case?
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
The very beginning of her conversation with TheHadou seems to be missing, but from what *he* understood the overall message was that she didn't want to be touched and he even reiterates that.
But she was ok with it. She says so in her text. She used the word "unwanted" instead of "unexpected" and apologized to Noel for causing him issues. It was a friendly gesture and not some of sort sexually charged girlfriend molesting act that some people (including me) thought it was.

Edit: There is a chance that she's lying to Noel to not anger him though. And it IS his side of the story, so bias is to be expected. Dunno what the truth is, but all I'm advocating is a little restraint before calling for blood, especially since there IS some room for doubt here.

Is this the fact-checked version? It seems benign, like a friendly callback instead of a sexually charged thing.

But I don't know, it seems like the above wasn't the case?
This is what I've gathered from Noel's posts with his texts. Could be wrong. That's why I asked if I was missing anything.

Edit: Totally within the event's rights to ban Noel. The only question here is whether Noel should be seen as a someone who sexually harasses women or someone who was just having some consensual fun with a friend. Butt pats don't have to be sexually traumatizing experiences.
 
Absolutely the right decision. Her assault on him while drunk doesn't give him the right to assault her at the event. And it's well within the events right to suspend him.
 

pablito

Member
Conflicting stories it seems. But unless the girl comes out and tells Noels story on her own social media, we'd have to side with the TO on this. Noel would have more to gain by trying to come off as the good (or less bad) guy. Unless they TO has been known to hate Noel or something.
 
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