Fighting game community is in a heated debate over teabagging
The fighting game community is currently embroiled in a heated moral debate: Should teabagging be allowed at the professional level?
Ahead of the Killer Instinct World Cup, organizer Brandon Alexander announced Monday that teabagging will not be allowed at the event, igniting arguments on social media over teabagging’s place in professional competitions. Alexander later told Yahoo! Esports that the announcement was a “troll,” but that hasn’t stopped people from voicing their arguments for and against the taunt.
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Teabagging is an infamous act performed in many competitive video games where players crouch repeatedly on a fallen opponent to humiliate them and assert their dominance.
In some 1v1 fighting games, teabagging happens before an opponent is defeated, like when Street Fighter pro Du "NuckleDu" Dang taunts his near-death enemies with a few crouches. That kind of taunt is especially humiliating given the personal nature of fighting games.
To some people in the fighting game community, teabagging is unprofessional and has a negative impact on the scene’s legitimacy. In his original message banning teabagging, Alexander cites sportsmanship for his decision (which was later covered up as a joke despite another event organizer telling PvP Live it was real).
For others, teabagging is just a form of expression that adds more personality to the game, or is considered plain fun.
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Killer Instinct designer Adam “Keits” Heart is against the idea of a teabagging ban, saying that it adds to the psychological component of competitive games.
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Final rules have not been announced for the Killer Instinct World Cup so it's possible that the organizers could go back on their statements for a second time and ban teabagging. The World Cup runs from March 10 to 12.
