During a officially Mortal Kombat 11 Pro competition tournament on January 16, finalist Titaniumtigerzz was disqualified after jokingly shouting developer NetherRealm Studios over his Sheeva variant – a personalized moveset that displays a custom name to opponents – as “WhyDidNRSdoThis.”
The disqualification caused a tricky moment on the stream. When the official broadcast After only a few minutes away from the top 8 game, commentators Housam “Mitsuownes” Cherif and Miguel “Darth Arma” Perez continued to search for words to explain what had happened.
“Unfortunately, it looks like we have a little problem here, and someone is … we have a situation,” Perez said to viewers as he and his partner appeared to be listening to producers in their headphones. “I don’t know what to say in public, but we certainly have a situation here.”
Shortly after, Perez said Titaniumtigerzz’s opponent would move despite the match not being officially decided yet. No reason was given, but Perez reminded everyone to “abide by the rules … everyone must be respectful,” implying that was the reason Titaniumtigerzz was disqualified without coming out and saying so. NetherRealm Studios and parent company WB Games have not responded Kotaku‘s requests for comment.
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The variation name, told Titaniumtigerzz Kotaku, would be a very mild criticism of Sheeva’s strengths.
“It was meant to be funny, since the character I was using is actually extremely simple,” Titaniumtigerzz explained to me via DM. The joke was, ‘Why would they be such an easy character?’ ”
Sheeva is a hot topic in the competition Mortal Kombat 11 lately because of her Dragon Drop punch attack. Titaniumtigerzz says the move, which cannot be blocked, could be used in almost any situation to put Sheeva in a more favorable position. It’s become such a problem that top players have devoted entire videos to explaining how to beat this one attack.
Titaniumtigerzz and his opponent were not immediately informed of the disqualification and continued to play off-stream for a few minutes. After being notified, he was reportedly left in the dark as to why he was disqualified and was not given a chance to rectify or challenge the situation. Titaniumtigerzz says a tournament moderator has since told him the decision had to do with his variation name.
“They banned me in the very first game in which I used the name,” said Titaniumtigerzz. ‘No chance [to change the name] was given and no one reached for me. I would have changed it immediately if I had been given the option. “
While the Official Pro Kompetition Rules don’t specifically mention protests like this, the code of conduct does give organizers the freedom to disqualify players for almost any reason.
Since the disqualification, the hashtag has been #WhyDidNRSDoThis has spread through the Mortal Kombat community on Twitter, and Titaniumtigerzz told Kotaku he has received a lot of support from fellow players who disagree with the decision. He also said problems with it Mortal Kombat 11 and last week’s disqualification will not stop him from playing in future tournaments.
“It’s the professional league and I am a competitive player,” explains Titaniumtigerzz. “I may hate how they do things, but in the end it’s their game and I have no other options.”