Professional fighting games are on the verge of breaking into the big time as a spectator sport, with over 2 million people tuning in to live streams of last August's EVO fighting game championship and millions more watching streamed fighting matches on TwitchTV every month. But a recent controversy over the overtly sexist treatment of a female competitor has some wondering if the fighting game community is really ready for prime time.

Anyone who has seen a fighting game tournament knows the community is well known for a casual, trash-talk, and bravado-filled atmosphere, where players actively try to psyche each other out for an advantage. But that's probably not enough to explain the way competitor Aris Bakhtanians treated teammate Miranda "SuperYan" Pakozdi during the Cross Assault event, a Capcom-sponsored, reality show-style competition pitting two teams against each other in Street Fighter x Tekken matches for a $25,000 prize.

Live-streamed footage from the first day of the tournament shows Bakhtanians, leader of the Tekken team, making sexual comments towards Pakozdi that range from crude to potentially abusive. Spurred on by commenters interacting via a live chatroom, Bakhtanians proceeds to guess at Pakozdi's bra size, suggest she take part in a mud wrestling match, expresses a desire to spy on her in the women's bathroom, suggests she wear a skirt he would buy for her, and threatens to smell her if she makes a mistake.

Pakozdi, for her part, is seen in the video laughing nervously at the comments, though she does say at one point "this is creepy." She later commented on her Twitter account that Bakhtanians' actions were "not funny at all" and that he had "made my life incredibly hard and hasn't helped me [deal with hecklers] at all. He made it way worse." Pakozdi also suggests via Twitter that when she confronted Bakhtanians about his behavior, it was "pretty obvious he just doesn't give a shit.' (Pakozdi has publicly rejected interview requests)

Bakhtanians defended his behavior in an impromptu discussion with TwitchTV community manager Jared Rea on the fifth day of the tournament (the discussion starts around 1:45:00 in this video archive). "Those are jokes and if you were really a member of the fighting game community, you would know that," he says of his behavior. "This is a community that's, you know, 15 or 20 years old, and the sexual harassment is part of a culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it's not the fighting game community—it's StarCraft," he continued.

Bakhtanians was more circumspect in a prepared statement provided to Ars Technica after his behavior started drawing more attention around the Internet. "I understand that I said some controversial statements on the Cross Assault show, and a lot of people are deeply offended with what was said," he said in the statement. "I unfortunately used extreme examples in the heat of the moment and feel that my statements don't actually communicate how I feel. This is similar to what people say when they get into an argument with their girlfriend, and they say things that they deeply regret. I sincerely apologize if I have offended anyone."

Censoring the community?

But Bakhtanians also continued to argue against what he sees as efforts to try to sanitize the fighting game community by submitting players to what amounts to censorship. "What I was trying to communicate is that mild hostility has always been a defining characteristic of the fighting game scene," he said. "Back when arcades were more prevalent, people didn't like newcomers, and players needed to fight and pay their dues to get respect. The debate I was in was with a person who supported professional leagues, who have intent to censor the community to make it more accessible."

That person, TwitchTV community manager Jared Rea, tells Ars Technica that censoring players is not his goal. "There's absolutely a way to keep that edge and keep it positive," Rea said. "When the NBA brings on Charles Barkley [to comment], you can tell immediately he has that trademark attitude, he has his edge, he's going to take little snipes here and there, but it's still pretty friendly. You go, 'Oh, that Charles Barkley—he's kind of a jerk, but that's why we like him.'"

Instead, the fighting game community is home to many players and spectators who have created an environment that "is just not friendly towards women." He recalled a number of instances where players and spectators hurled misogynistic or homophobic comments in a crowded tournament hall, at one point forcing Rea's girlfriend to leave the one and only tournament she'd ever attended.

These kinds of incidents are helping to hold back the mainstream success of fighting games as a spectator sport, Rea said, despite the genre's easier-to-understand gameplay. "You find that more women watch games like Starcraft and League of Legends," Rea says. "One could say 'Oh, that's because fighting is inherently more a boy thing... boys get off more on carnage...' [but] what I've found is it's not that other types of games are more elegant or that women enjoy more intellectual pursuits. A lot of it is the community. I have many friends who say to me they like watching Starcraft more because the community itself and the commentators make it a more fun environment to be in."

Change through sponsorship

Is this kind of culture something that can be changed? "I think we've discovered a few times now that calling out the fighting game community and slapping them on the wrist and saying 'No, no, no. That's not right,' doesn't work, because the more you do that the harder they fight against that," Rea said. Instead, those that are looking for a more respectable community should "support people who support that vision," he said, and not the people who want to "bring things back to the dark ages."

Sponsorship could have a significant effect on this process, Rea suggested, noting that professional leagues like MLG and IGN Pro League hire players and commentators from within the community who can act professionally, and provide media training so their employees "know how to present themselves well. ... [Pros] know that, when it comes to being a sponsored player there are certain things they have to represent, and that's perfectly fine, that's definitely not a judgement. Some people would say, 'Oh they're sell outs,' but honestly it's the responsible thing to do."

Capcom, the major sponsor of Cross Assault, is for its part publicly distancing itself from Bakhtanians' actions. "The views and opinions expressed by cast members in the live internet program 'Cross Assault' do not reflect those of Capcom," the company said in a statement to Ars Technica. "As a company, Capcom believes that everyone should be treated with respect. This particular issue was brought to our attention and has been addressed. We sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by any comments expressed during the show."

But Rea thinks the company could go farther. "I think it would be in [Capcom's] best interest to say to these guys 'Hey, if we're going to give you money, if we're going to sponsor your event with cash, you'd better keep it relatively clean.' It's in their best interest as a sponsor. That's kind of in the sponsor's responsibility."

In the end, Rea said he hopes this incident can be a learning opportunity for everyone involved. "I hope this really serves as a wake up call to the fighting game community, to say, 'You've reached the point at which people outside the fighting game community are actually really fascinated by what goes on inside the fighting game community.'

"If the fighting game community is going to grow and reach levels of success it could very well reach, they've got to take a hard look within themselves and figure out what it is that they want to represent," he continued. "I think it's fair to say that with this whole blow up, it's not a good look."