Casual $40,000 Marvel Rivals Creator Tournament Sparks A Ton Of Online Drama

While in a practice match to prepare for a $40,000 Marvel Rivals tournament, content creator Kingsman265 rather insistently suggested a change in his team’s composition. The discussion sparked a series of arguments with his teammates, which escalated to the point of tournament host BasimZB giving Kingsman265 the boot from the tournament altogether.

The tournament, held on January 18, was called Deadpool Creator Cup, and it was meant to commemorate the titular character’s recent addition to the game. The tourney grouped 48 influencers together, and while this wasn’t a professional cup, the pool was significant. First prize would net around $3,000 to each player on the winning team, divided from a total of $18,000.

Kingsman has uploaded a video to his YouTube channel which shows the whole situation unfold. “You may not want the money, but I do, okay? I really want to win,” Kingsman265 told his teammates at one point. “I need money for college, I need money for everything, and I want to try my hardest to get the right composition.”

His main suggestions involved asking fellow teammate and content creator zazzastack, a known Black Widow player, to switch out the sniper for another character, as well as attempting a “triple support” composition, which basically involves having three players, basically half of the team, using healers.

As the teammates argued against Kingsman265 suggestions, the streamer stopped practicing with them and went out to queue for ranked matches on his own. Shortly afterward, Kingsman265 reports that the tournament host messaged him to let him know he was out.

“This is my decision, based on what I saw, off the clips and the VODs, and what I’ve seen from different perspectives,” BasimZB said via Twitch. “When you’re drafted to the team, to the moment you finish the tournament, you are part of this tournament, and you gotta play by the rules (…) there’s a level of respect that you need to have amongst your teammates, and amongst staff.”

Online harassment prompts a public apology

BasimZB went on to say that he saw and understood everything, but ultimately argued that if a player is interested in “pure competitiveness,” that person should “be a professional player” and take part in professional tournaments instead, as opposed to a creator-focused cup. The team Kingsman had been part of went on to come in seventh out of eight teams. 

The video uploaded by Kingsman265 has accrued over 1 million views as of the time of publication. As noted by Polygon, zazzastack, during the tournament stream, said that people who are coming to conclusions based solely on said video are not “fully informed” about the situation. The streamer later suggested that Kingsman265 left out parts of matches in which he “shit-talked” his teammates as well.

Content creator Cece took it over to X (formerly Twitter) to share a lengthy apology about her behavior during the tournament as leader of the team Kingsman265 was on. In it, she says she regrets raising her voice and shutting down a teammate, as well as calling Kingsman265 a “loser,” while also saying that the heightened emotions of the situation led to these moments. Meanwhile, Zazzastack has stated that she’s been on the receiving end of harassment, with Kingsman265 fans subbing to her Twitch channel just to leave “disgusting” comments.

Kingsman seems to be coming away from the situation pretty well, by contrast. As noted by Dexerto, he’s amassed over 10,000 new subscribers on Twitch, and pulled in donations surpassing the amount he would have earned had he and his team won the tournament. “I’ve already made more than the $3000 that I would have won for first place in the tournament, so stop giving me money,” he said on a recent stream.