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Street Fighter Player Banned From Pro Tour, Evo for Sexual Harrassment

Capcom released a statement, saying Noel Brown is banned from competing in the 2016 Pro Tour season.

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Capcom has released a statement, saying Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 competitor Noel Brown will not be permitted to compete in the 2016 Pro Tour season, after he sexually harassed a female attendee at the Combo Breaker 2016 tournament. Evo has also weighed in on the incident and banned Brown from attending the upcoming 2016 Championship Series in Las Vegas.

Capcom said that it worked closely with Combo Breaker during the aftermath of the incident and confirmed with the victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, that the "inappropriate act" came from Brown and was non-consensual.

"As a result, we are banning Noel Brown from competing in the duration of the 2016 season of the Capcom Pro Tour as a first offensem," announced Capcom. "A second offense will result in a lifetime ban from participating in all future Capcom Pro Tour events. We will use this as a baseline penalty if similar incidents occur in the future.

"We do not condone any acts of harassment and we want all of our players and fans to know we will continue our work to ensure that all Capcom Pro Tour events provide safe, inviting environments where the focus is on healthy competition and exciting rivalries," it assured.

Combo Breaker also banned Brown from attending next year's tournament and potentially 2018. Capcom said it supports this decision and added that it will support any other tournament that plans to do so with him or any other individual "who they feel is creating a hostile environment for other attendees."

Evo founder Joey Cuellar told Shoryuken that the fighting championship supports Capcom's decision to ban Brown and any other player who performs acts of harassment.

"We have a zero tolerance policy for behavior that creates an unsafe environment for our attendees," Cuellar said. "[Brown] will not be allowed to attend Evo 2016."

Brown addressed the incident in a Facebook which has since been deleted because "[his] phone keeps going crazy at work." A Google cache has preserved the post, and you can see it right here (via Polygon).

"First and for most, it was not a random isolated thing. We were playing around as you can tell, she clearly laughed in the video after it happened," the post reads. "Of course people will blow things out of proportion and make them seem like they're something they're not which is definitely the case here. I don't understand how someone else calls sexual harassment on someone else's behalf if they're not any of the parties involved. Actually all three (her, her boyfriend and I) of us drank and ate pizza together that night after seeing the screen shot. No one ever wants to hear the truth because controversy is always more entertaining but despite what comes of this I still want the truth to be out there."

This isn't the first incident Brown's been involved in. He was arrested for assault on his ex-girlfriend in 2013.

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