This past weekend (Nov 12th to 13th) was a Smash Ultimate tournament near Seattle Washington called Port Priority 7 and things didn’t go according to plan for pro player Enrique “Maister” Solis. The big story coming out of the weekend should be about the upsets, the amazing bracket runs players had, the champion, etc. Unfortunately, all those stories are being sidelined for this controversial event that occurred during the weekend and resulted in a bad look for the venue.
Pro player Enrique “Maister” Solis is known for being the best Mr. Game & Watch in the world and winning a match with Sora at the finals of Super Smash Con 2022. He’s been traveling the world, competing in majors for the past five years with no incident. He is considered a very respectable figure in the Smash community with an affable demeanor and to see what happened to him was very upsetting.
Maister ended up getting disqualified from Port Priority when he was denied entrance into the venue. A bouncer called him an “outsider” and wouldn’t accept his ID to get into the venue. The venue in question was the Muckleshoot Casino. In a Twitlonger Maister explained that he attempted to enter Port Priority at the main entrance of the casino. A bouncer asked for his ID but then told him his ID wasn’t valid since it wasn’t a state ID. Maister attempted to explain that he was from Mexico and was just looking to get to the Smash tournament, not the casino, but was told he was an “outsider.” A lot of fellow members of the Smash community are calling out potential racism including Melee player Hungrybox.
At that point, the bouncer wasn’t accepting his ID or a photo of his passport, leaving Maister at a loss. He asked if he could show his driver’s license and the bouncer said it was fine. But after glancing at it “for no longer than two seconds,” Maister said the bouncer said “nope.”
“Well, that’s f-ing stupid. My date of birth is there. My name is there. My nationality, date of expiration, and literally everything… And I even told you already that I have my passport on my phone if you want to see it. But you’re denying me entrance for no reason,” Maister said.
According to Maister, he’d never had issues with his IDs in Las Vegas before. He also learned that other competitors from other countries were not having problems getting into the venue. With Port Priority being a major, players from other countries including but not limited to Japan and Canada were in attendance. But in Maister’s case, even the supervisor told him that he couldn’t come in and “that’s it” after not letting Maister explain what had happened.
According to Maister, as he began to explain the situation to the supervisor, the supervisor put his hand up and said “Stop, Don’t Talk, I don’t want to hear it… You gotta get out of here.” Maister then contacted the tournament organizer and met at a different entrance where the same supervisor happened to be. The tournament official attempted to explain the situation but the supervisor continued to deny Maister entrance and explained that if he didn’t leave then he would call the police.
Maister was then escorted away from the casino. Maister called an Uber and went back to his hotel room.
In the TwitLonger, Maister said that he felt he didn’t have an attitude—at least not at the beginning—and felt the incident may have been racially motivated due to the use of “outsider.”
“I guess all the preparation for this tournament was in vain and it doesn’t matter anymore. I haven’t stopped crying since this happened and I feel terrible. Took a six-hour flight for nothing and spent lots of hours studying and giving up my stream schedule just to get ready for this. I’m really, really sad right now, next tournament should be SWT [Smash World Tour],” Maister wrote.
Maister has been getting a lot of support from the Smash community, friends, and his girlfriend since the incident. After telling his story, more people came forward to offer their support and condemn the people at the venue. Others have even called out the casino in an attempt to get some answers. The next day (on Sunday) Maister was able to enter the venue with no problem because the specific security guards were not present. EE a prominent figure in the Smash community and commentator was present with him when getting in and conducted an interview regarding the ordeal. He does say that he wanted to compensate him the best he can and Maister humbly accepted and did state that the situation does not discourage him from traveling in the future.
For more Smash Bros in your life check out our amazing recap of Super Smash Con 2022
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