Mortal Kombat player wins $565, celebrates by breaking a light fixture worth $3,000

Mortal Kombat player Dyloch has managed to overshadow his own Mortal Kombat 1 tournament win at the CEO 2024 fighting game championships with one of the most profoundly stupid—and expensive—post-match celebrations ever. Right after landing the killing blow on opponent Rewind, he stood up, picked up his chair, and hurled it off the stage, accidentally smashing a light fixture.

Was he workshopping a new furniture-based fatality? Perhaps he was infuriated by a subtle chair wobble he'd been experiencing all game? Or maybe he thought he was being ambushed by four vampires and hoped to stake them all in one four-legged attack?

Whatever his reasoning, he made a fool of himself in what should have been his moment of triumph, and it could end up costing him. His prize money for the event was $565, while the event's head (and long-time influential figure in the fighting game community) Alex Jebailey has pointed out that the light he broke was worth close to $3,000. 

"Does anyone know @RezDyloch’s PayPal cause somebody’s paying for that broken light fixture and it’s not me," he tweeted, following it up with "If one more person pops off throwing anything you will be banned from any event I ever do".  

It's a direct condemnation of Dyloch's actions, but also a warning to others—probably at least partly in reaction to Super Smash Bros player Hungrybox, whose over-the-top celebrations have also included power-slamming his own chair as recently as May 2024 at GOML X. 

The fighting game community has long pushed for an informal, homegrown feel to its events, distinctly different from the slick, corporate atmosphere of major esports tournaments. But the downside of that is there's still a lot of immature behaviour at events, both on and off the stage. "Don't throw your chair at the light fixtures" seems like it should be a pretty low bar, and yet here we are in 2024 with an event winner potentially earning himself a negative $2,435 prize.

But Dyloch certainly has few defenders on social media right now, so there's no question that the stupidity of his behaviour has been recognised in the scene, and hopefully that's an end to anyone else's chair-chucking plans at least. Meanwhile, he's got 2,435 reasons not to do it again.