Fighting game players allegedly racially abused outside of major tournament
Bandai Namco Tekken players were allegedly racially abused and had water thrown on them while in Daytona for one of the year’s biggest fighting game tournaments, CEO 2023.
CEO 2023 is taking place in Daytona this year, with a plethora of different games being featured in its lineups and an open bracket format.
However, focus has shifted away from the tournament itself for a time, due to abuse allegedly directed at some of the players by members of the public.
According to Tekken player and streamer, Phi “PhiDX” Lam, who took part in the Tekken 7 tournament and made it to the Finals Bracket, “Daytona citizens yelled ‘ching ching chong’ and threw water at CBM Ulsan and other Koreans.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that attendees at the event had been responsible for the alleged abuse, rather than members of the public outside of the event.
The founder and organizer of CEO, Alex Jebailey, acknowledged these events on Twitter.
PhiDX only mentioned Jae-hyun “CBM” Kim and Lim “Ulsan” Soo-hoon as two players who were on the receiving end of the racist remarks. It’s not known if other Korean players such as Kim “Kkokkoma” Mu-jong and Jeon “Jeondding” Sang-hyun were subjected to similar comments.
At the event itself, the top placements were dominated by the Korean and Japanese players.
Tekken mainstays like Arslan “Arslan Ash” Siddique and Joshua “Ghirlanda” Bianchi from Pakistan and Italy respectively also finished in the top seven to eighth. And PhiDX was the only American player to have a top-eight finish, finishing fifth to sixth.