No. I've thought about it many times. Part of me wants to because maybe it'd make him actually think about the things he says. We've always been friendly when chatting at events and stuff. I had day dreamed about saying something if I bumped into him at EVO but I never did. IDK, it's awkward, and I just never say anything. This is actually the first time I've even said anything about it publicly.
All of this is completely understandable, and I'm so sorry to hear it. I won't be watching streams with Aris commentating anymore.
I manage a fairly large music festival (45,000 attendees, 250 bands, 35 venues) - our community started bringing up similar concerns about the music community at large and in the city we are a part of. We started working with a local Centre For Sexuality to come up with not just broad Code Of Conduct policies, but to try to have pre-emptive support in place, and have actionable ways to deal with various scenarios regarding verbal, physical and sexual harassment and abuse. One of the best things (of many) that came out of this partnership was Community Bystander Trainings that our staff, main volunteers at each venue are required to attend, with other public sessions available. They did a great job of changing my perspective on things, from how off-hand comments might not, in a vaccuum be a huge problem, but how left unchecked, they can contribute to an environment that can have serious, and damaging actions be dismissed or overlooked, and to how bystanders can check in with those who are in uncomfortable or dangerous positions, and do so in a way that doesn't put them in danger or outside of what they themselves are comfortable with. It sounds to me like this is something the FGC needs - a better toolset to identify and then respond to dangerous or unacceptable situations.
All that to say, I just hope that going forward, events look at the way their commentators, codes of conduct, security, and responses to these kinds of allegations contribute to the overall feeling in the community. When communities grapple with public I would hope that events like EVO, CEO, Combobreaker, etc. would be open to constructive criticism about what's okay/what the right thing to do is in all of these cases.
