LG | Maister · @Maister_SSB
12th Nov 2022 from TwitLonger
Entrance Denied at Port Priority at Muckleshoot Casino:
As most of you know, my entrance to the venue at port priority was denied today and ended up in a DQ for me.
I got to one of the entrances of the venue (the casino one), and was asked for my ID, I gave it to them and they said it wasn’t valid since it had to be a state ID or else I couldn’t get in. I then explained that it wasn’t possible for me to get one since I’m from Mexico and was just here for a video game event and not the casino either way. To which then the officer replied with “oh, so you’re an outsider” and I just said “ummm…yeah” and then he said well either you have a state ID or you can’t get in, or maybe if you have a passport. To which I then replied “My passport is in my hotel room, it is 20 min away and I usually don’t carry it with me because if it gets lost, then I can’t get back home and that’d be a bigger problem” and the officer then replied “well, I don’t care and that’s not my problem, either you show me another ID, or you can’t enter” since he asked for another ID I told him “oh wait, I have my driver’s license with me, would that work?” He said it was fine, glanced at it for no longer than 2 seconds and said “nope, still no” to which I asked why not, and he said it had to be a state ID or passport (again). I told him I had the passport on my phone, if that could work. He didn’t even say yes or no, he just said, “You should get out of here you can’t come in”.
At this point, I had been called an outsider, had gotten denied 2 IDs and my passport on my phone for no reason and denied entrance to the event. To which I then replied with “well, that’s fucking stupid. My date of birth is there, my name is there, my nationality, date of expiration and literally everything and I even told you already that I have my Passport on my phone if you wanna see it, but you’re denying me entrance for no reason.” I even told them I had just been to Vegas 2 weeks ago and my IDs worked fine in there in every casino and for everything. Later I also found out that apparently people from other regions had been fine using their IDs from their respective countries and had been fine with entrance without necessarily having to use a passport or anything extra.
I got told to leave while the supervisor came to “talk” to me. We waited outside of the entrance of the casino, the supervisor then arrived and just as I was about to explain he did a gesture with his hand saying stop (✋🏻) and said “I don’t wanna hear you, the point here is that you can’t come in and that’s it, do I make myself clear?” He didn’t let me explain the situation, he didn’t let me talk at all. After that, we tried going to the other entrance, but the supervisor was waiting for us there with another officer. One of the TOs talked to him and all the supervisor said was “well, the gentleman here can’t access the place anymore because he had an attitude towards my people here in security” the TO said it was all they could do unfortunately and one of the police officers escorted me out of the place.
I then tried explaining to the officer to see if it would make any difference, but all he did was respond to me saying “did you not listen to anything that was said there? You can’t get in and it can’t be changed, so get out of here” and “do we have to call the police to get you in jail? Or do I have to escort you physically out of here?”
I then told him I would leave but I just wanted to call an Uber since I didn’t know where to go anymore. I then pointed at a gas station that was in front and asked if it was fine if I went there and he said “I don’t care where you go just get out before I see you again and call the police”
And…yeah, that’s it. Tried 2 different IDs besides passport to show security guard to get into venue, got told that basically they didn’t want any outsiders in yet others were using their IDs from their regions and there was no problem, but with me there was. Was my attitude wrong towards them? Personally, I don’t think so. I only had that attitude after I was denied entrance after showing 2 different IDs, suggested showing my passport since I had it on the phone and that’s what they were requesting and they were still saying no for no reason at all. Was it racist from them in that case? Perhaps, it definitely felt that way, specially by calling me an “outsider” and denying everything I wanted to show as an ID and not even letting me talk at all.
I guess all the preparation for this tournament was in vain and it doesn’t matter anymore. I haven’t stopped crying since this happened and I feel terrible. Took a 6 hour flight for nothing and spent lots of hours studying and giving up my stream schedule just to get ready for this. I’m really really sad right now, next tournament should be SWT.
Lastly, thank you to @ZerangoRage for helping me when I got to the hotel by talking to me and supporting me, and to LG for everything they did for me to try and fix this situation and talk to the respective people. I am so happy to be part of such a wonderful team with wonderful teammates, I am so grateful to you all so much I can’t even put it into words. To my girlfriend @aizawabby for also being there checking up on me, calling me, supporting me, and making sure everything is okay. I love you so much babe. And thank you to everyone who was concerned about me on Twitter. I received a lot of DMs in the past 2 hours from people reaching out, supporting me and saying kind words. I love every single one of you, I always play for the people and always have you guys in my mind when practicing, streaming, or doing anything in smash.
Till SWT! :(
- Maister