Joseph "Mango" Marquez has always been a controversial but incredibly talented Smash Bros. player. But during Ludwig's Beerio Kart World Cup on June 21, the world saw him hit rock bottom. After starting the event dressed as Wario, a visibly inebriated Mango took his shirt off and began grinding his private parts against female streamers who were visibly uncomfortable. During the event, people were slow to respond to his wildly inappropriate actions, with another player laughing it off and saying he had seen Mango in much worse condition.
But after the stream, people sobered up and acted to protect their numerous multimillion-dollar brands. Ludwig banned Mango from attending further events. His eSports team Cloud 9 released him June 23.
“I reached out to anyone who I thought might have felt uncomfortable and talked to them, but also, and I already told Mang0 this, no longer inviting Mang0 to Mogul Moves events,” Ludwig said in a June 22 livestream, referencing his company that organized the tournament. “It’s a privilege to go to an event, the whole point of an event is it’s a fun thing to do, to have a good ass time and if somebody appearing jeopardizes somebody else having a good time that just can’t be a thing.”
Mango addressed the incident on his own X feed:“Sorry to everyone I’ve let down or hurt,” he wrote on X. “I know it just looks like I’m trying to save face but I genuinely feel so awful about it.. all I’ve done is reflect on my life and realized I’m a broken human I will try and redeem myself over time as I always do Gonna stop drinking immediately and get it together.”
As of this article's writing, there's been no decision on his competitive future as a whole, although he himself has alluded to a probable ban. The next major event is August's Supernova, an event he has won the singles championship at for the last four years. It's a stunning fall for a player hailed as one of the "Five Gods" of competitive Smash Bros.