Competitive Gamer Arrested For Hitting Ex-Girlfriend

[Andy Chalk]

Competitive Gamer Arrested For Hitting Ex-Girlfriend

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/NoelBHungry/status/350866015569182721]​

High-ranking fighting gamer Noel Brown is facing charges of domestic battery after an incident involving his ex-girlfriend and another tournament player.

Noel Brown, a competitive gamer ranked among the top ten [http://www.nfgrankings.com/p/ultimate-marvel-vs-capcom-3-umvc3.html] Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 players worldwide, is facing charges of domestic battery violence after an early-morning attack on a fellow Community Effort Orlando player over this past weekend.

At around 2 am on June 29, Brown entered a suite where his ex-girlfriend was engaged in an "intimate encounter" with the other player. Brown attacked the other player, striking him several times, and then allegedly struck his former girlfriend when she tried to break up the fight.

Brown told police that he believed he was still in a relationship with his ex when he discovered her with the other player, and although he admitted to striking the other player, he claimed he had not actually hit his ex-girlfriend but had just pushed her with an open palm. He was subsequently arrested and charged.

Community Effort Orlando tournament organizer Alex Jebailey refused to comment on the situation, telling Kotaku that providing coverage of the incident "can only hurt competitive gaming as a whole," but the Caribbean Video X Games tournament tweeted [https://twitter.com/thevideoxgames/status/351584141369802752] this morning that it has "decided to release him from his obligations for commentating at VXG 2013."

This isn't Brown's first violent encounter with a fellow tournament player: In 2011 he started a fight [http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2011/mar/29/fight-breaks-out-tournament-3-week-ban-instituted/] with Eric Arroyo that led to his ejection from the Break Weekly #101 tournament and a warning that he'd be slapped with a lifetime ban if it happened again.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/top-fighting-gamer-arrested-for-allegedly-hitting-his-e-635549540]


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[unstabLized]

Ohhhhhh crap. This is going to cause a shitstorm. *Ducks for cover*

 

[Hagi]

Sounds like he's got some anger issues, especially considering this isn't the first time.

On the other hand, getting angry and even throwing a few punches whilst certainly not right is somewhat understandable upon finding what you believed was your girlfriend in bed with another guy. It certainly doesn't make it okay, but it should be taken into account.

As always, the news headline makes it sound much worse than it actually is.

 

[luvd1]

Wow. Just like a real sportsman. Competitive gaming must be seen as real sports now.

 

[Legion]

The sensationalist title does not make me happy as it feels misleading.

He was arrested for assault on two people, and denies one of them. The title suggests this is a case of domestic abuse between a man and his ex, when it was actually a fight between two guys and the girl has made the accusation that he also hit her when she tried to break it up.

At any rate he was clearly wrong for attacking the other guy, and if t claims of him hitting his ex-girlfriend, then that's even worse seeing as he has clearly had violence issues in the past. Perhaps some anger management courses are required on top of whatever other punishment he may get.

 

[luvd1]

Sounds like he's got some anger issues, especially considering this isn't the first time.

On the other hand, getting angry and even throwing a few punches whilst certainly not right is somewhat understandable upon finding what you believed was your girlfriend in bed with another guy. It certainly doesn't make it okay, but it should be taken into account.

As always, the news headline makes it sound much worse than it actually is.

Not if it wasn't his suite he walked into. If it was his bed he found them, understandable.... If he was in France.

 

[Me55enger]

Hope they throw the book at him.

So this is the face of Esports, is it?

 

[omega 616]

Somebody should tell him not to try to copy what he sees in his game of choice.

Wonder if that was what he was thinking "it would be so sweet if I did an ultra right now!". Sorry, I like tasteless jokes.

 

[Schadrach]

two questions:
so who is this guy and why did i never heard from him before?

Some eSports player, that's all I know.

why is this even news?

Because gender. That's why the headline is what it is, too.

It really doesn't suggest "man finds girlfriend in bed with other man, fights with man and shoves girl a bit too hard when she tries to break up the fight" as much as "man beats up girl because gamers are misogynist scum. See the violence inherent in the system!" even if the former is more indicative of what happened.

Hell, if I wanted to get all evil on the gender politics side, I'd point out that the headline minimizes the male victim.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Seems like he got arrested for hitting the other guy, not the girl.

But still, definitely seems like the guy needs some anger management, if this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

 

[StriderShinryu]

two questions:
so who is this guy and why did i never heard from him before?
why is this even news?

Who is he?
Noel Brown has been a fairly prominent member of the competitive fighting game community for quite some time now. He hasn't really been a lock to win anything for some time, but he's generally one of the more competitive players and frequently finishes in top 16s or so in the games he regularly plays. So not exactly a no namer but not really a player you're all that likely to know much about if you don't follow the East Coast scene.

Why is this even news?
It's not really, unless you're a publication that actually covers esports and/or the fighting game scene, which The Escapist (and the source, Kotaku) doesn't. The incident involved a member of the community but it happened off hours and had no relation to the tournament at all. It's click bait, not a news story.

 

[SageRuffin]

two questions:
so who is this guy and why did i never heard from him before?

If you play and/or follow fighting games, then you would definitely know of Noel Brown; he's one of the more outspoken Pro players. It's obvious you do not play and/or follow fighting games, or don't do so very often, otherwise you'd probably know all this already, including the headline (as inaccurate as it is).

Noel Brown has a bit of a history of getting into fisticuffs with people he doesn't agree with, to put it lightly. Here people are trying to get more folks into fighting games, and then shit like this happens. As if the constant infighting wasn't driving people away as it was...

 

[Hagi]

Sounds like he's got some anger issues, especially considering this isn't the first time.

On the other hand, getting angry and even throwing a few punches whilst certainly not right is somewhat understandable upon finding what you believed was your girlfriend in bed with another guy. It certainly doesn't make it okay, but it should be taken into account.

As always, the news headline makes it sound much worse than it actually is.

Not if it wasn't his suite he walked into. If it was his bed he found them, understandable.... If he was in France.

Because getting this angry over cheating is only somewhat understandable if it happens in your own bed?

You have a strange attachment to your bed I must say...

 

[Kargathia]

Sounds like he's got some anger issues, especially considering this isn't the first time.

On the other hand, getting angry and even throwing a few punches whilst certainly not right is somewhat understandable upon finding what you believed was your girlfriend in bed with another guy. It certainly doesn't make it okay, but it should be taken into account.

As always, the news headline makes it sound much worse than it actually is.

Not if it wasn't his suite he walked into. If it was his bed he found them, understandable.... If he was in France.

Because getting this angry over cheating is only somewhat understandable if it happens in your own bed?

You have a strange attachment to your bed I must say...

Well, judging by the explicit mention of "ex-girlfriend", we're not entirely sure about the cheating bit, but I can certainly relate to his distaste of other people having sex in his bed.
Hell, if I'd find my ex and her boyfriend in my bed I'd throw them out as well, even if I think they're a great couple.

But judging by the fact he physically assaulted the guy, and not just threw them out of his room, I think we can safely conclude that the cleanliness of his bedsheets wasn't his primary concern.

 

[Weaver]

IMO getting angry over cheating is completely normal.
I'd be pretty angry too, personally.

 

[NickBrahz]

And another famous misleading title by The Escapist, come on is this really even gaming related? So a guy that plays a game punched another guy because he was fucking his girlfriend, why is this even here? and of course he got angry some other guy was fooling around with his girlfriend.

 

[Hagi]

Sounds like he's got some anger issues, especially considering this isn't the first time.

On the other hand, getting angry and even throwing a few punches whilst certainly not right is somewhat understandable upon finding what you believed was your girlfriend in bed with another guy. It certainly doesn't make it okay, but it should be taken into account.

As always, the news headline makes it sound much worse than it actually is.

Not if it wasn't his suite he walked into. If it was his bed he found them, understandable.... If he was in France.

Because getting this angry over cheating is only somewhat understandable if it happens in your own bed?

You have a strange attachment to your bed I must say...

Well, judging by the explicit mention of "ex-girlfriend", we're not entirely sure about the cheating bit, but I can certainly relate to his distaste of other people having sex in his bed.
Hell, if I'd find my ex and her boyfriend in my bed I'd throw them out as well, even if I think they're a great couple.

But judging by the fact he physically assaulted the guy, and not just threw them out of his room, I think we can safely conclude that the cleanliness of his bedsheets wasn't his primary concern.

Obviously she's his ex-girlfriend now.

The article however also explicitly mentions that, at the time of the event, he still considered her his girlfriend.

Again, I'm not saying it's somehow okay to physically assault a guy you find having sex with your girlfriend. But I am saying that it's a completely different situation than this article's title is making it out to be.