Professional Smash Bros. player Joseph 'Mang0' Marquez has today been dropped by his main sponsor 'Cloud9' due to "inappropriate conduct" at a recent Mario Kart World "Beerio Kart" tournament hosted by streamer and internet personality Ludwig Aghren.
This 11-year sponsorship marks the end of "one of the longest partnerships" in esports history, as detailed by Sports Illustrated. According to the same source, Aghren banned Marquez from all of his future events for "multiple inappropriate actions towards other creators, including multiple women" while intoxicated.
Cloud9 followed this with an "internal evaluation" and has now released the following statement about how it maintains a "zero-tolerance stance regarding harassment or any other form of inappropriate conduct" and would be immediately releasing Marquez.
Marquez responded to this in a post on social media acknowledging how he had "no one to blame" but himself, and never thought he could "hit this low" while apologising to "everyone" at the same time. He also mentioned how this will "probably" get him banned from future tournaments, although there's no official update about this right now.
"Beerio Kart" is described as a drinking game where players drink alcohol and race in Mario Kart. Aghren's event was unofficial and was not endorsed by Nintendo.
Marquez has won multiple major Smash Bros. tournaments over the years and is considered to be one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time after success with characters like Jigglypuff, Fox and Falco.