Smash caster under fire for saying competitor “looks like Diddy Kong”

Smash Bros. commentator SuperGirlKels is under fire after saying Zinoto, a Diddy Kong player competing at the event, “looks like Diddy Kong” when he’s playing.

Get On My Level is one of Canada’s biggest fighting game tournaments, with almost 1,000 players signing up for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s singles category in 2023.

While the tournament is mainly known as a Smash Bros. based tournament, a few other fighting games like Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6 are also being featured at the event.

During a pools match featuring Zinoto, a Diddy Kong player, caster SuperGirlKels said he “looks like Diddy Kong” when he plays followed by making monkey noises.

Being a caster isn’t easy, especially when you’re working in the fighting game scene. When tournaments have hundreds if not thousands of entrants, casters spend hours going from match to match as they try to keep their energy high and keep the broadcast entertained.

As days drag on, there are times when casters make mistakes and phrase things in a way that they didn’t exactly mean. Now, Smash Bros commentator SuperGirlKels is under fire for something she said, with viewers calling her out for a certain call during the live broadcast.

She spoke about how Zinoto, a competitor at GOML 2023, “looked like Diddy Kong” while he was focused on his match, followed by making monkey noises and saying “give me the bananas.”

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i didnt mean it in a bad way i was just saying his expression was like diddy 😭😭

Kels has since clarified that she didn’t mean it “in a bad way” or have any malintent behind her words. She didn’t realize the gravity of her words until backlash from the community came, leading to a further apology with her promising to apologize to Zinoto in-person.

Additionally, she posted a picture of the face she was referring to when she was making the call.

i didnt mean it in any harmful way. he looked focused diddy from wii face like this pic.twitter.com/1z68cJ3EQo

Kels’ co-caster Fabz was applauded for keeping his cool and keeping his criticism for her call to “That’s a crazy thing to say” on the broadcast, laughing along with her in the moment and shrugging it off.

Fabz has been retweeting responses to the tweet highlighting the clip, saying that he’s been laughing at the memes and didn’t know what to do in the moment.

Zinoto has officially responded and has full faith Kels had no bad intentions with the way she worded it, claiming that they’ve known each other for years and called the entire dispute “nonsense.”

I was getting jammed by Honda in the Street Fighter room and apparently there's no service in that room so I didn't see any of this nonsense.I've known Kels for years. Hell, I talk with her whole family every tournament we're at.

Though Zinoto himself didn’t take any offense to it, the community is still divided after the casting mishap.