As many of you may know, I've seemingly had a vendetta against Melee as a Smash Four player in the past. However, I've seen that this only on account of my first tournament experience. I've realized my dislike for the game was only due to sour grapes from a negative first tournament experience. So, I proposed we as a community brainstorm and discuss ways to let newer players feel more open at tournaments. First however, allow me to tell my story for further clarification. I attended a certain Colorado tournament with the past few months, and I decided to play as Luigi. My character choice was instantly patronized and I was suggested to playing Marth. The social pressure forced me to switch and I've been unable to play Luigi since without getting anxious (I know it sounds dumb but social scenarios affect me like this) I was forcefully molded into a Marth main by this Falco player, and while I'm upset at this turning point in my career, I've shown natural skill with him. For example, I took a friendly and taunted, which you could call BM but was really just me pumping myself up for my success. I left the set up once I finally took a game against his Pikachu and I joined another one. I was high on myself from my victory so I sort of bragged about it to the new set up, which was a five man rotation, and they nodded in approval. However, the guy I defeated experienced some salt and asked me to money match. This sort of bullying should not be tolerated in our community. So I tried to make him aware that I had no interest I gambling, and the others began to laugh at my expense. Nothing else can describe the humiliation I felt at that moment. I had to breath deeply for a few minutes, during which he walked away. I searched for him and found him outside, talking to a friend near their car. I approached him and hovered, waiting for their conversation to end which took about twenty minutes. I told him I was denying our money match, and he said in the most facetious tone "Alright man". I tried to be respectful and wad met with patronization, not praise. I tried to make friends by making multiple melee jokes, but I was called a "head" in the third person, and was referred to as a "dirty memer" They told me to go to melee hell or something, which made me nervous. I just stopped responding to their questions and refused to take my character off the CSS at the friendly set up when rotating, and we ended up playing 3 man free for alls until my mom picked me up. I made some bad decisions, but I thought my behavior was justified. So, how can we a community work to not isolate newer players who display natural skill?