Smash player under fire for dumping bucket of water on homeless man

Smash player and tournament organizer Nizar ‘Z’ Awada is facing backlash after dumping a bucket of water on a homeless man sleeping outside his venue.

Z is one of Montreal’s prominent Smash figures, co-owning the MTL Gaming Centre where he frequently puts on tournaments. But on May 11, he went viral for all the wrong reasons.

In a video Z originally posted to X before it was deleted and reuploaded, the Smash player was handed a bucket of water from a woman who seemed concerned about what he was going to do.

Looking down at a homeless man sleeping outside the venue, she remarked, “What if he is dangerous?”

In an instant, he tossed the water all over the man, who woke up whimpering. “It’s time to wake up, my friend. We can’t sleep here,” the Diddy Kong main giggled.

The footage soon spread across social media as many called him out for his actions. While he has since deactivated his own X account, Awada defended his actions before deactivating.

Z claimed the man had a “history of sexual harassing and being violent towards my attendees despite multiple warnings to leave.”

“I acknowledge my mistake and commit to learning from it,” he apologized.

The incident has, however, left the Montreal Smash scene quite upset. Some players have encouraged their fellow Smashers to seek out other tournaments where Z isn’t involved.

“If you’re in Montreal I recommend supporting other Smash venues instead,” one player urged.

Footage of the fiasco even spread to Reddit where it was picked up on the popular Public Freakout subreddit where internet users continued to express disgust.

“That’s just evil. Never look down on another man unless you’re trying to help them up,” one Redditor wrote.

This is hardly the first time that a Smash player has caused an uproar. Last year, a player was banned from events after he slapped his opponent for defeating him. A year before that, in 2022, a player was arrested for allegedly beheading his mother.