Leffen: How To Break The Rules (And Get Away With It) 

I will make a Leffen diss track if this video reaches 200K views. JOIN THE DISCORD >>> discord.com/invite/dNgQsXR6G5

It's honestly crazy that you can look at the original 2013 ban statement Armada wrote on Smashboards, if you can read all 8 reasons for the ban, Leffen has continued to do all 8 of those things again, and actively continues to do so.

Was great talking to you and Weezy about this! Fingers crossed on that diss track

I like how Hbox got loads of hate for breaking a chair, and leffen had minimal backlash for the many things he's done.

me at my daughter's birth: 🤷‍♂️ me at the leffen-criticizing convention: 👨‍💼

The fact that Hax was banned instead of Leffen is crazy.

Its crazy how leffen has such thin skin, its a little funny. Low tier god 2 lookin ahh

this man also playing a big part in keeping hax banned is downright devious, the second it looks like hax was going to receive some mercy he gets his minions to swarm and keep the guy perma banned, you would think someone with prior ban experience would feel even a pinch of empathy

I'm surprised you didn't bring up the new smash doc and how Leff basically bullied the producer to redacting factual statements about him

leffen waking up and realizing he forgot the milk (he will find a way to blame hbox for this one)

He has, in fact, grown and matured. In the same way as a turd left in a shoebox for a few years, festering and stinking up every space in contact with it.

Wait until he goes to twitter and tells everyone that your DRG turret build is bad.

Leffen's popularity is why no one asks these questions. As you said, it's the assumed explanation: "he's popular, so he won't be banned." Just see the comments calling you out simply for being against the status quo, it definitely at least plays a part in how he's gotten away with it. Good video though, manipulation and bullying are sadly allowed in esports if it's on the side of the TOs

Try not to be a terrible person challenge, level impossible (your name is Leffen).

So who's going to be brave enough to post this to the smash reddits.

Leffen's gonna be punished if he starts competing for that Riot Fighting Game anyway, cause Riot has way WAY stricter guidelines for there games professional circuit then like normal grassroot FGC, and dude is not mature enough to live out by those guidelines

Shoutouts to SimpleFlips

It's actually gross to me how many ppl from the smash community support Leffen. I seriously don't understand it.

Leffen has been a trash human being since the beginning of his gaming career, he's one of the most toxic people you could ever meet. It's nice to see people aren't putting up with his BS anymore.

The ban list isn’t long because the smash community’s standards are too low. It’s a barrier-of-entry thing. There are almost no restrictions to entering the smash community, and so you’ll of course need to filter out people. In professional sports the barrier of entry is so high that those people are naturally filtered out from the start.

I'm so glad this is being seen more openly. I remember years ago falling for the hbox hate leffen was spewing as a young melee fan (i held tournaments in my highschool) and looking back what he was doing was DISGUSTING. He needs to be permanently banned too.

i think we can all say that the smash tournament higher-ups are just smoking something else

I wonder if Leffen will play the victim card on this one

What's insane to me surrounding this entire discourse with Leffen is that Leffen is massively disliked in the community of every single fighting game he tries to involve himself in and yet Smash is somehow the one instance where Leffen is this portrayed as some paragon of humility and a well intentioned good boy that does no wrongs because he got barred from attending tournaments in his home country for a year. What did that ban actually even accomplish? Leffen just ended up travelling to North America during it and entered tournaments that way, completely circumventing the punishment altogether more or less. The double standards set upon Hax are ridiculous too. Anyone right now can create a completely anonymous sockpuppet account and start antagonizing Leffen with threats of harm, and yet if this happens, Hax is the one who is entirely at fault for making Leffen feel unsafe, even if the person doing it is specifically doing it to spite Hax because they don't like him. Yet if this were done to any other community figurehead like Hbox, Mango, Zain, Cody or whoever, the same standards are not applied. I guarantee Hbox still gets detractors that are from the time Leffen continuously perpetuated the notion that Hbox was "ruining the game", and I bet some of them send him super vile crap too, and yet those same standards Hax is held, Leffen conveniently isn't held to the same ones. He's never been punished at all or even vilified by the community for his contributions towards inciting the harassment of another competitor because of the incredible excuse of "everyone took shots at hbox".

It's just frustrating right? We've seen Leffen's pattern of behavior, we've seen the hypocrisy of the smash community, and somehow it keeps getting worse! Something has to change man, as an oldy, I've watched them dig their own hole and double down on bullshit time after time. It's insufferable, and is the main reason I stopped following smash around 2018. Cool game, horrible people running it.

Has anyone asked Leffen to show proof of death threats?

Now do one on ltg

A big thing as to why leffen gets different treatment is that everyone is used to leffen being a dick, not that it's fine, but people just brush it off now

Honestly, the guy just seems like a horrible person through and through and this is coming from someone not in the smash community.

Bro no one sends death threats to Leffen lmao. But that's just a classic Leffen true combo

i mostly agree with technicals however leffen is a special case so special in fact that that what he has done is far beyond any redemption that could be achieved (f.e. bringing zero on the verge of committing suicide) he doesnt show any genuine remorse, he is unwilling to learn from "mistakes"- he still acts the way he does deliberately and effectively is the same a**hole hes been ever since therefore he should unquestionably be permabanned FULL STOP

I was there during the stream covering this topic. I like that you started the video with that interesting fact that real sports teams rarely ban anyone if at all. I also like your choice of music, the SA2 and JSRF??? That was a lovely thing to hear for a newcomer like me, but obviously I have bias towards that stuff. Thank you for covering this. #FreeHax

Such a bizarre video from you, but you did hit the nail in the head. When you really start peeling back the layers, almost every issue the Smash community has comes from its incompetent leadership.

the scene is at its lowest bc of the poor leadership its a shame

Yea, you know a player is problematic when no community welcomes him and wants him. That GG Strive EVO win was quiet.

And they are still wondering why Nintendo doesn't support their community and their competitive scene.

It really goes to show just how much influence really matters. Unless Leffen does something blatantly illegal, nobody is going to bother getting him out of the scene. It's kinda like the Pokemon community where competitors can break the rules on stream but because the TOs have so much influence over decisions, nothing will get done about it. Nevermind the fact that cheating is so normalized over there anyway.

I think to add on to this. I also think because Leffen is a villain and the TOs like keeping him around as he brings attention to their product.

This is what bothers me. Leffen has undeniably done wrong, and that's ok. Everyone has done wrong, hax too. What I find so upsetting is that Leffen has been forgiven by Hungrybox, Mew2King, and a lot of the Melee community, but he somehow fails to offer the same forgiveness to hax that has been afforded to him by so many people. I'm not sure what the word for it is, but it baffles and upsets me that Leffen is unable to see how he could have EASILY been the one perma banned had it not been for the mercy of those he wronged. Irony at its finest.

I think you should add Leffen's name to the title. Good video.

Thank you for making this video Leffen is the worst human to grace this community (and that’s saying a lot)

It feels like this video doesnt acknowledge its lack of perspective. Its evident that a lot of people within the community *think* he's changed since 2013 and they also believe he intentionally plays a villian. This video probably has merit, but it falls short establishing credibility by actually talking to people like who know him, like Armada, and peoole who emforce the community guidelines. Without these things, it lacks the ability to truly drive its point home.

I feel like this video could have had an impact but the community it gonna ignore it cause technicals is in it

How on God's Green Earth is this channel crossing over with ANOTHER of my interests. Edit: I knew a guy who would act like Leffen. This was EXTREMELY back in the day, though; as in, pre-TF2 2007. Brawl wasn't even out yet. Essentially this guy would go so hard on me that I quit trying to play smash brawl and go to events, meetups, etc. Didn't have anywhere NEAR Leffen level of skill though, thankfully! Hahaha

9:28 “he’s got old reliable” spongebob manifests into frame no YOU got old reliable tech

I only know Leffen cuz everyone makes fun of him whenever he appeared on a tourney, Im no surprised so many ppl trash talk him

So sad to hear that you got a lifetime ban at all smash events for this video 😮‍💨

I'm a simple man, I see a video bringing light on Leffen's crimes, I like and subscribe

Liked and subscribed.

13:00 Let's go a cameo from a _great entertainer he is._ I'm glad to see Simple's vid in here. I don't know if I'm the reason for that at all and even if I am I don't want to take credit for that since this whole video is _your_ video but I remember mentioning SimpleFlips' video in one of your MineCraft live streams so it's cool to actually see that video here too. Regardless, this is a good video. I don't engage in the smash community at all and only ever sink myself in video essay stuff like this video and a ton of TurnDownForWalt's content so I don't think it's right of me to say what the smash community is supposed to be but I hope for how deep this issue is that I, as a barely passive observer could not see the full extent of, certainly hope for things to get better in whatever form better looks to be.

Love the use of Jet Set Radio music

Great video #FreeHax

Can’t wait for Leffen’s tweet

So glad to see a fellow hax truther

11 yrs after the ban and this guy is still acting a fool. Holy christ, he gets a million 2nd chances.

Pretty sure if the old smash boards were posted everyone would be banned

Good video bro

This was an incredibly good video. Great points on the TO's and other "higher-ups" within the community that continue to enable and perpetuate his behavior. Imagine the amount of pain saved if they just slapped him with a permanent ban and had it done with

"oh hey, it's that guy who was mentioned in emplemon's video on hbox, i wonder what's up with him"

Where did you get the permanent ban list? I couldn’t find it

You didn’t say this in the video but Leffen also corroborated a false story about ZeRo, a pro player, allegedly showing explicit content to minors, which was confirmed to be a false allegation made by Jisu, an artist and climate activist, in an attempt to cancel ZeRo, as such Leffen committed Perjury, which is a felony, as such Leffen should also face consequences from the law

4:12 Bro, what the snowflake? Insomnia isn't serious. Like, if you gave trouble sleeping, that can be insomnia

Surprised elegant is not on the list then again he is an ultimate player

You nailed it bro, good work

So sorry for what the Leffen Legion will do to your comments section 🫡

This is like TMZ

I got permabanned from Leffen's Twitch chat for advocating against hard-pressing L-cancels. He pulled up my chat history, read my points and said whatever, then saw me say "If you soft-press L-cancel, maybe you too can get 4th at Genesis!" Instant ban, but I made him bleed. ggs

Interesting.

Treating Leffen like the heel of the smash community has at least one major flaw; heels are acting. I may not watch a whole lot of wrestling, but I get the feeling they're not actually trying to break their opponent's leg or disregard the rules of the match, it's part of the performance. Leffen isn't acting, that's how he actually is, and there are consequences to real people for the way he behaves.

Was that the Deep Rock Galactic swarm theme?

"For some reason, the Smash community's tolerance is lower than other esports" ...Yeah... THAT'S why their banlist is longer... right...

This dude is a villain 😂😂😂😂😂 Oh man I already enjoyed this video first couple's of minutes

Leffen was doing okay at first when he came back to the scene with this villain arch type but just continued to push the boundaries on whats acceptable...then you couple that with him being manipulative when he starts to receive hate back is just wildly hialrious. Leffen cant truly see how much of a spineless, immature, going on 30 but still a child type nerd he really is...

12:35 Song?

IMO should be replayed

Great documented video my dude. You are a great communicator and video maker. The way you articulate yourself in these videos makes it so easy to grasp whatever topic you're bringing forth. Honestly, the more I get reminded of the injustice which is Leffen's transgressions (other than the Sweden ban) going unpunished, the more I get bitter towards the blatantly biased, unqualified and hypocritical (add other adjectives here) "top heads" in this community community. It's actually a joke.

Now is the best time to leave that dumpsterfire of a community behind. Did wonders for my life.

That fact that nobody in the melee community has stood up for is really sickening.

Whats even crazier is a former smasher named JK was temporarily banned for the following: attempted vehicular homicide against Charliedaking, S2H, Technicals and others.

well said, this guy has off vibes i dont get why people are willing to tolerate it.

based tech

#freehax

The stuff in the 2012 era was pretty inexcusable but recently i think his actions are being blown out of proportion. Leffen is rude for sure but everyone’s framing him to be pure evil when he: Said he didn’t like HBox for playing lame and not running friendlies help people learn the jiggs mu, complains about characters he deems brain dead, calls people bad, and laughs at Hax for blaming his insomnia on himself. Also don’t downplay why Hax was banned. Hax made extremely sensitive information about another player public knowledge, not the same as making a jab at someone’s insomnia that they already weaponized.

Wouldn’t insomnia be considered physical health instead of mental health? Being unable to sleep seems like a bodily defect rather than a psychological one

Well done Lucid, TF2 players also happen to like Melee.

I guess is fair to call simple an outsider...

This was very well put together, and great job interviewing Technicals. I can tell you put a lot of work into this video, and I think others notice as well! Hope you get tons of subs from this 🙏

Leffen is so fking repulsive.

Leffen is so toxic. And he is genuinely just “A terrible human being”, to use his own words.

Reminder that the Smash community's code of conduct isn't made by an official law.

Hope this video will get more views. Adding this comment to help a little...

You had it right when you commented on ]the state of competitive melee] being at its worst. Do you fanatics not realize your scene is dying? If you could bend the metagame around you at the highest level, then you'd have the same influence as Big Leff Da Smash Gawd. I agree Hax should be unbanned for his own contributions which may seem a contradiction. Point is, the rest of us (me bc I drop donos on twitch) should be doing wayyy more to support our top players. Not only the other players who are as wimpy and weird as us.

530 views in 2 hours, Lucid really fell off.

dude since 2020 the smash community has been making me sad like fr fr smh. if I bring up smash to my friends outside of smash they just look at me and laugh saying "lol dead game. oh? the community of pedos, liars, schizoids, and corrupt figure heads?"

now play melee vs viewers

This is the obnoxious thing about Melee Hell. I really enjoy the group but the admins are so far up their own backside they refuse to admit their decisions in supporting Leffen and hating on technicals has been poor and arbitrary

Leffen is literally a 30 year old fossil😂😂 he should stop acting like a teenager and start a family already

This guy seems like a real jerk!

Leffen can break the rules on frame 1 and he's invincible while doing it. Hard to beat that

Don't talk about my !Hero like that!