Key Takeaways
- Justice Cappalonga has been reportedly kicked from Winthrop Esports’ esports program.
- Cappalonga’s teammate CJFrozen confirmed Cappalonga’s removal from the program.
- This isn’t the first time a Smash Bros. player has been accused of inappropriate behaviour with a minor.
Justice “Justice” Cappalonga, a collegiate Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player, has been reportedly kicked from his esports program for inappropriately messaging a minor.
Cappalonga had been a collegiate player for Winthrop Esports, the esports program of Winthrop University, having earned a scholarship to attend and compete for the South Carolina university.
Justice, a Min Min main, was ranked as the 149th-best player in the world on the community’s LumiRank leaderboard. Cappalonga had reasonably strong tournament finishes, finishing 65th at Genesis X, 49th at Supernova 2024 and 49th at Riptide 2024. Cappalonga had been studying Business Administration and Marketing at Winthrop University.
An All Too Familiar Story
The initial reporting on Cappalonga’s “banning” came from his Winthrop Esports teammate CJ “CJFrozen” Wiley who created a post on X about his teammate’s inappropriate behaviour. His post reads, “Regarding Justice. Justice has been permanently banned from South Carolina Smash due to inappropriate conversations and actions with a minor. If you are a tournament organiser looking for more information, please direct message me.”
In response to a reply which asked Wiley if Cappalonga had been “banned from Winthrop Esports,” Wiley replied “Yes.” Cappalong’s status with the esports program and Winthrop University as an institution is currently unknown, but it’s not unheard of for scholarship students to be completely removed from an institution if they lose their scholarship for behavioural issues. Cappalonga has deactivated or deleted his account on X, presumably in response to the allegations. We have reached out to Winthrop Esports for comment.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time members of the Super Smash Bros. community have been involved in inappropriate relationships with minors. An ex-professional player and prominent community member, Gonzalo Raúl Barrios “Zero” Castro, previously admitted to ‘sexting’ two minors in 2020, though he later walked back these admissions and denied everything. Castro settled a defamation case against Jacqueline “Jisu” Choe in 2022; Choe had accused Castro of inappropriate behaviour towards minors, and harassment of Choe herself, including forcibly showing her pornography against her will.
The first appearance of the crossover-filled platform fighting game series on Nintendo Switch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the biggest edition yet when launched. It features 89 fighters, upwards of 100 stages, and both single-player and multiplayer modes.