A $40,000 Marvel Rivals Tournament Erupted In Controversy After A Player Was Kicked For Questioning A Teammate’s Hero Choice

I saw a situation unfold in a $40,000 Marvel Rivals tournament where the first-place prize was $18,000. A teammate on one of the teams selected Black Widow, a sniper character known across all platforms for having the game's worse winrate. The question for her teammate, Twitch streamer Kingsman265, was whether to accept the choice or ask for a switch to a more competitively viable hero. What followed was a complete breakdown in team synergy that resulted in Kingsman265’s removal from the competition. In an hour-long video posted to his YouTube channel, he detailed his experience during the Deadpool Creator Cup, a tournament hosted by creator BasimZB.

According to Polygon, the event brought together 48 influencers, and while its nature suggested a less intense atmosphere than a professional esports circuit, the significant cash prize made it a serious affair for many. For Kingsman265, a victory would have been a career-defining moment, offering a level of exposure that his solo streams could not provide. He also stated the money would be life-changing, claiming he was broke and needed it to help pay for his expensive college tuition.

After the six-person team split, his share of the first-place prize would have been around $3,000. He was drafted onto a team that included another Twitch streamer named zazzastack. His video shows that the initial interactions were cordial. During a practice scrim, Kingsman265 set the tone by asking his team to play as if it were the actual tournament. zazzastack replied, "I always do that." The team seemed to get along at first, sharing jokes in the lobby as they prepared.

zazzastack is a dedicated Black Widow player. It is the first piece of information in the "about me" section of her Twitch account, and her gameplay videos consistently feature the red-haired assassin. It's possible her specialization on an uncommon hero was a factor in her invitation to the event, as it could make for an entertaining broadcast. In the first match shown in Kingsman265's video, she performed exceptionally, earning the MVP award at the end of the round. An opponent in the chat even wrote "widow mog," acknowledging her dominant performance. However, the team's cohesion began to fray as discussions turned to optimal team compositions, a conversation made more complex by the introduction of Deadpool, a new character set to disrupt the game's meta.

The footage captures a heated debate over whether the team should adopt a "triple support" strategy, which involves using three healing characters. zazzastack was among those who rejected the idea outright. "This is going to be a hard tourney, then," Kingsman265 responded. zazzastack countered by saying she expected other teams to run "off-meta" compositions, so their team should feel comfortable doing the same. Another person in the group identified the core of the conflict: the players had different mentalities. Some might play casually, but in an event with thousands of dollars on the line, others would inevitably adopt a "sweaty," highly competitive mindset.

A teammate suggested that player skill on specific characters was more important than adhering to a theoretical optimal composition. But this point also met with friction, as many in the Marvel Rivals community believe that being a good teammate means being proficient with multiple heroes to adapt to the team's needs. The video shows Kingsman265 asking zazzastack early on if she was skilled with other characters who could counter popular hero choices. zazzastack asserted that Black Widow was perfectly capable of handling those matchups.

The arguments continued to escalate. "You're going to tilt me, bro," zazzastack warned Kingsman265 as he persisted in explaining his view on how the game should be played. "Chill, chill, chill," she added later. Just seven minutes into his hour-long video, zazzastack revealed they had already discussed team composition nearly a dozen times. She was particularly frustrated by his insistence on changing strategies even when she was performing well in the scrims. As the team played more, the animosity intensified.

The discussions grew louder and more aggressive, with multiple people often talking over one another. Throughout these arguments, Kingsman265 himself continued to play only one character: Magik, a popular sword-wielding DPS. While Magik is a strong meta pick, his refusal to switch heroes stood in contrast to the pressure he was putting on his teammates to be flexible. Midway through his video, Kingsman265 lost his temper and stopped practicing with the team, choosing instead to queue for Ranked mode to vent his frustration. He pointed out his credentials, stating he had achieved a top 500 rank in every role and had invested thousands of hours into the game. Shortly after this, he was informed by the tournament host, Basim, that he was being kicked from the event. Basim addressed the decision on his own Twitch stream, stating that it was his choice alone, based on watching clips and VODs from multiple perspectives.

"This is my decision, based on what I saw, off the clips and the VODs, and what I've seen from different perspectives. 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."— BasimZB

Basim added that while he understood Kingsman265's competitive nature, the event was a creator cup, and "if you really just want pure, pure competitiveness, then you would be a professional player, and you'd play in professional tournaments." The decision sparked immediate controversy in Basim's chat and the wider community.

As the tournament played out, Kingsman265's strategic predictions proved accurate, with many of the top teams running triple support compositions. zazzastack's team finished seventh out of eight, winning only one of their nine matches. During her games, she experienced a ping of 177 milliseconds, indicating significant lag compared to other players.

Despite her earlier defense of her main character, zazzastack did switch off Black Widow during the tournament. However, attributing the team's poor performance to a single player seems misguided given the clear internal friction leading up to the event. In her own stream of the tournament, zazzastack maintained that the matches were close and that they might have performed better with more practice time with their substitute player. She also addressed Kingsman265's video.

"If you're just going off his video, then you're not fully informed."— zazzastack

She claimed he edited out parts of matches where he also "shit-talked" his teammates. While Kingsman265's video is long, it is visibly edited to show only specific exchanges. He has since asked his followers to stop harassing zazzastack, but the incident has become a major talking point in the Marvel Rivals community, reflecting common frustrations with toxicity in the game's Ranked mode. zazzastack reported that she was being inundated with disgusting comments from fans who believed Kingsman265 was treated unfairly. She said people were subscribing to her Twitch channel just to post hateful messages.

"The hate has been overwhelming and unfair."— zazzastack