Jaurice Smiley · @313Trill
3rd Jul 2020 from TwitLonger
NC Melee: a history of bullying (repost to fix spelling errors)
My name is Jaurice. For those in the smash community, I went by the name 313. I was never a top level player, but I managed to pull a few bracket upsets in my time. I was heavily active in North Carolina during the Brawl days: specifically 2009-2014. I met some truly great people and had some great times. PP, Sneak, Blackchris, 0Room, and I’ve Jihad It are people to this day I look at as a role model not just as players but a decent human beings. What I am about to express is no way meant to engage in a witch hunt. What I am about to express is meant more so for myself to find inner peace (I’ve been in therapy these last few weeks), speak my truth, and let stuff go. I would hope that nobody regardless of what smash game you play would experience the level of bullying, disrespect, betrayal, and harassment I received from a large portion of NC Melee during my time. I want to this to be a teachable moment.
The day before New Year’s Eve 2011, there was a smashfest hosted in Raleigh, NC. It may at been at Joshua’s (Lightsyde/Darksyde) house. We had active setups for Melee/Brawl. Of course, there were more Melee setups. As the night progressed a smasher I knew named GOFG was heading out, but would return later. His girlfriend was with him, but she was drunk/asleep so he was asking if anyone could watch over her. I offered and he rejected my offer. The reason being was because he couldn’t trust a black guy to watch over his girlfriend (both of them are white). At the same time a smasher named Snap (Dylan) wanted to convert one of the few Brawl setups to Melee and I had an issue with that. He grabbed me by shirt collar and wanted to fight. I didn’t and just brushed it off.
On April 21st, 2012 I went out to a tournament at ECU for my birthday. For whatever reason while I was standing around waiting for a match Darksyde/Lightsyde came behind me and wrapped his hands around my neck to place me in a sleeper hold. Everlasting Yay was also there to egg him on.
I have to devote an entire section to Yay. Yay is from South Carolina. Back then South Carolina’s scene was in shambles, so he went to NC events. Yay seemed cool when I first met him at MLG Raleigh 2010. As time progressed he would be one of my major bullies. His behavior during this time was offensive, and helped encourage many NC Melee players to do the same (except PP, Sneak, and Blackchris). PP himself once told me that hanging around Yay made him question his own character. I was hit by vehicle as a pedestrian in 2013. I made a Facebook status after getting out the hospital that night. Yay laughed at me on it. People would let Yay’s behavior slide all the time. He once told me committed arson through AIM chat. To an extent I could say Yay laughing at that car situation helped set the tone for a year later when many NC melee players (Moophobia, Mr.Fizwidget, Dark Hart) would not only question my skill (by this time I had achieved being top ten in NC more than once and even taken a game off ESAM in teams), but hoped that I died in that car accident. I made a joke status in 2013 about not watching melee at EVO that year and Yay told me to give up on being a writer (as of now I have a Master’s degree in Creative Writing and am currently working with a publisher to publish a book I’ve been working on since 2011). All of this behavior was never called out on.
Krescent is not NC melee, but he committed a horrific act against me. I took him and Stingers to KIT 2015 for smash 4 in January. He was in a rush to get back because he had class Monday morning. It’s an eight hour drive from NC to TN, so about halfway through I was tired and let him drive my car. We were almost 20 minutes away from where we needed to go and he crashed my car. Him and his family walked away from all responsibility involved and he has ignored me since.
That is my story and truth. Again, this is not to engage in a witch hunt. Bullying and harassment is NEVER ok. I hope that with everything going in the smash community right now we can learn to be better not just at the game, but also human beings.