Most Valuable Gaming (MVG) is a professional eSports team that sponsors some of the biggest names in the Super Smash Bros. series such as Mew2King, Ryo, and Sol. As a budding organization in the eSports scene, MVG conducts itself professionally and takes steps to protect its players and image.
Correction [9/3/2015 3:12PM EDT]: MVG does not officially sponsor Inui, but has an affiliation with him on their channel. Inui is officially sponsored by MVG.
Recently, MVG has been under attack because of a possible scandal with an employee. MVG has released an official statement on Reddit regarding the rumors that exploded overnight regarding their relationship with Cynthia Bunnay, whom the organization parted with as of July 28th.
The official statement has since been deleted by moderation on grounds of slander and witch hunting, but has been archived here. Bunnay has been let go as a result of privacy breaches, false employment promises, poor work performance, and general misconduct.
Through a series of text messages, emails, Tweets, and Facebook posts, a scandalous drama erupted among the Smash Bros. community. While there are various statements and quotes throughout this post, it should be noted that all of these are based on rumor, speculation, and angry individuals who feel attacked and wronged; take these quotes for what they are.
The purpose of this article is to get you up to speed and explain how we got to this point.
How it all began
Bunnay was temporarily hired to provide public relations and social media management for MVG. But, as a result of public and private reveals, drew a reaction across the gaming community. Money fraud, relationship manipulation, and borderline illegal practices are at the forefront of the allegations.
According to Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman, a professional Smash Bros. player sponsored by MVG, Bunnay was hired as a result of their relationship.
Publically posted on Facebook, the details of their encounter reads like something out of a Smash Bros. high school fanfiction. In reality, the allegations and rumors are dangerous, possibly slanderous, and the beginning is eerily similar to the Zoe Quinn scandal from last year.
In a he-said, she-said situation, there’s only one spoiler alert: It doesn’t end well.
Zimmerman and Bunnay met at a Florida tournament and later became friends over social media. Zimmerman admitted to wanting to pursue a romantic relationship and after learning that she went to college for event management, thought he could “kill 2 birds with one stone” by convincing his boss, Gregg Mondesir, to hire her.
According to MVG, he was far off base on her abilities to help the organization:
Personal relationship confusion plagues MVG
In Zimmerman’s long statement, he describes fraud and relationship confusion regarding Cynthia:
After buying her a $400 plane ticket whose return trip she didn’t use, she never paid him back. Before moving to Arizona for the job, she began a less-than-casual relationship with Ryan “Rages” Kidd and suggested an open relationship, which Zimmerman didn’t want. After being warned about her from other members of the Smash community, he confronted her on suspicions that he was being used for social status gain. As a result, their relationship temporarily soured.
Zimmerman reports that she repeatedly asked for pictures of them together and requested retweets, while simultaneously not being clear on their relationship status. If only it ended there.
Scandalous activity and false employment propositions
After moving to Arizona, Bunnay was given many privileges while Mondesir was traveling out-of-country for business. While working for MVG, she was granted a free month of stay in his otherwise $2500/month apartment with access to his Mercedes-Benz for transportation. Apparently unknown to Mondesir, Bunnay flew out her then-boyfriend Kidd to live with her in the apartment. While unsolicited, Zimmerman and Mondesir agreed to “let it slide” to be nice and not “screw anyone over.”
According to Kidd, he was unaware that the position was temporary, and the apartment was occupied.
But good things can’t last forever. According to MVG, Bunnay “took it upon herself to establish unsanctioned employment opportunities with some individuals to work with MVG.” The official Reddit statement apologized to those who had falsely believed they would be given employment and denied any involvement in illegal activities.
Jon “Solreth” Lackey, another MVG member who had prior association with Bunnay, also confirmed his dissatisfaction. He detailed how she provided false contracts, dodged attempts to discuss business, refused to talk to the streaming manager, gave late stream notices, and “bragged about coercing Mew2King into thinking she would date him.”
As part of his rant, Solreth also notes that because of her tardiness and lack of communication, he blames Bunnay for indirectly almost killing him:
Privacy breaches via Facebook messages
Zimmerman was horrified upon learning from Bunnay that she had gone through his entire Skype and Facebook logs, despite a week prior confronting her about her own privacy.
The privacy breach was the last straw for Zimmerman and Greg.
Bunnay had henceforth been terminated. While the official statement regards it as a mutual transaction that ended amicably, Lackey has previously contested these statements on Reddit.
The other side: Bunnay’s responses are far from graceful
Ryan responded to the statements and allegations of Bunnay with unexpected negativity and confirmation.
His words echo Zimmerman’s and confirm suspicion about relationship manipulation.
*Melee Hell is the name of a popular Facebook group used within the Smash community.
After learning about the messages and posts, Bunnay reportedly “panicked” and spoke out on her Twitter to defend herself, which garnered her even more negative attention from her overly defensive tone and damning statements about MVG.
She also began posting private conversations between her and Mondesir, highlighting discrepancies between what she was told and rumors. These discrepancies include her job description, money allocation, and how she would receive her belongings on her return home.
That’s a lot of popcorn.
Bunnay has since apologized for her Tweets attacking Zimmerman’s mental disability and chalked up the situation to misunderstandings blown out of proportion. She has stated that she will privately answer MVG-specific questions, but no longer wishes to discuss personal business.
The Smash community has, overall, not been very supportive of Bunnay. While many of the statements have contradicted themselves and are hard to prove, the one piece of incriminating evidence has come from ex-boyfriend himself, Kidd.
Whether Bunnay will be ostracized or not from the FGC remains up to debate, but she has since tweeted positive messages and recognizes that she has “relationship issues” she’ll “work on.”
The animosity towards Bunnay can easily be chalked up to sexism and a popularity contest, especially since commenters on Facebook and Twitter have expressed their dismay through gendered slurs and insults.
Some find Zimmerman hard to empathize with
There have even been rumors circulating about Zimmerman threatening to leak private photos of Bunnay out of revenge.
Others have sided with Bunnay on the premise that Zimmerman’s initial anger with her is from a distorted romantic conflict and that it’s hard to side with someone who uses terms like “friend zoned.”
However, the evidence against her is hard to ignore. The only thing gamers can hope now is that the Smash community doesn’t fall into the pattern of women-targeted harassment all too common on the internet. Cynthia Bunnay only highlights the latest in what is notoriously known as “Smash drama” within the community.
Broadcasting private information and threatening to send nude photos and engage in revenge porn is not something anyone should support as a justified punishment, and MVG certainly doesn’t need their image tainted as a result of the very community they’re supporting.Correction [9/6/2015 11:41AM EDT]: Retracted a previous correction stating Inui is not officially sponsored by MVG. According to many community members, Inui is sponsored. MVG’s official Facebook and website do not have any dedicated About pages stating who they sponsor, so please take any direct inquiries to MVG.Note [9/6/2015 8:09PM EST]: Cynthia Bunnay is Cynthia Chang’s pseudonym.
