The Gamergate 2.0 Timeline: ft. Smash JT and Alyssa Mercante
A Case Study in Crybulling
Ah, the gaming industry – where the journalists act like rockstars, the YouTubers play watchdog, and everyone thinks they’re the main character.
Enter Jeff Tarzia, aka Smash JT, a former game industry insider turned YouTube commentator, and Alyssa Mercante, the (now former) senior editor at Kotaku, a site once known for actual game journalism way back in the day, before it pivoted to clickbait and culture war commentary.
What kicked off as a few spicy tweets and YouTube videos quickly devolved into a digital food fight: Mercante accused Smash of harassment, Smash fired back with receipts, and the internet, as always, grabbed popcorn.
But let’s be clear – this wasn’t some unprovoked attack by a rando on the internet. It was a public figure throwing punches from her soapbox and then crying victim when someone dared to respond with a video…or a hundred.
Image Source: Smash JT Videos on Alyssa Mercante | Google
This isn’t just internet beef – it’s a perfect snapshot of the growing divide between independent creators and a legacy gaming press that seems more interested in moral grandstanding than reporting.
And in this particular slapfight, one side brought facts. The other brought feelings.
Gamergate 2.0: Sweet Baby Inc. Gets Caught in the Crossfire
January 2024
Remember when gaming was about fun and not about who could out-woke whom?
Yeah, neither do we. Welcome to Gamergate 2.0.
This time, the drama centers around Sweet Baby Inc. (SBI), a Montreal-based narrative consulting firm that claims to “promote diversity and inclusion” in video games. But according to critics, they’re less about storytelling and more about shoehorning DEI checkboxes into every possible pixel.
The controversy ignited when Brazilian gamer KabrutusRambo created a Steam curator group called “Sweet Baby Inc. Detected,” aiming to flag games influenced by SBI’s consulting. The group quickly gained traction among gamers skeptical of forced diversity in their favorite titles.
Meet Chris Kindred, a (now former) SBI employee who decided that the best way to handle criticism was to call for mass reporting of the curator group and its creator, trying to get his group and personal Steam account shut down.
Because nothing says “we value diverse voices” like trying to silence dissenting ones.
Kindred’s actions led to a significant backlash, with many accusing SBI of attempting to suppress legitimate criticism under the guise of combating harassment.
And report the creator since he loves his account so much.
The situation escalated further when Kindred labeled members of the curator group as “Nazis,” a move that did little to quell the flames and instead poured gasoline on the fire.
Image Source: Chris Kindred | X
This whole episode serves as a gentle reminder in how not to handle a situation.
Instead of engaging in open dialogue, the SBI employee approach seemed to be: “Agree with us, or we’ll cancel you.”
A bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see how it plays out.
Sweet Baby Inc. Does What You Think They Do and More
March 2024
Back in the thick of Gamergate 2.0, former Kotaku senior editor Alyssa Mercante rolled out what many saw as a puff piece titled “Sweet Baby Inc. Doesn’t Do What Some Gamers Think It Does”. In it, she essentially tells the gaming public: “Calm down, folks. Sweet Baby Inc. isn’t the puppet master you think it is.”
It was a classic “trust me, bro” move – reassuring readers that SBI wasn’t sneaking DEI agendas into games under the radar, but instead just a harmless “narrative consultation firm.”
The article reads like someone trying to put out a dumpster fire by spraying it with lighter fluid and beating it with used diapers.
Image Source: Sweet Baby Inc. Doesn’t Do What Some Gamers Think It Does | Kotaku
Gamers, however, weren’t buying it. The piece landed Mercante right in the firing line of public ridicule – and in classic Alyssa style, she seemed to lean into the controversy instead of backing away.
More recently (February 2025 to be specific), the independent husband and wife YouTube investigators, Gothic Therapy, were peeling back layers others weren’t willing to touch. They uncovered a troubling web connecting Sweet Baby Inc. to Wings Interactive, a funding group with deep ties to Landfall Games, the studio behind titles like Totally Accurate Battle Simulator.
This isn’t your typical indie funding story. Wings Interactive, officially known as Vingar Interaktiva AB, shares not only addresses but board members with Landfall Games.
Petter Henriksson, Landfall’s co-founder, moonlights as Wings Interactive’s Vice CEO, a fact curiously missing from his public profiles.
Video Source: EXCLUSIVE: Landfall’s SHADOW Publisher EXPOSED | SBI, DEI, & Manipulation REVEALED! | Gothic Therapy
Gothic Therapy reported that Kim Belair, CEO of Sweet Baby Inc., sat on Wings Interactive’s selection board, giving SBI direct influence over where funding and narrative shaping might flow.
To top it off, Riot Games allegedly funneled a cool $1 million into Wings in 2021, painting a picture of a quietly coordinated industry machine behind the scenes.
When these revelations surfaced, Wings Interactive didn’t respond with clarity – instead, social media profiles disappeared, websites went dark, and the digital trail grew cold.
The very group claiming to support indie devs was suddenly operating like a ghost in the machine.
So while Alyssa Mercante’s article tried to dismiss and downplay the fears around Sweet Baby Inc., the real story is a tangled web of connections that suggest a bigger game being played – one where DEI and “woke” agendas might just be getting more play than some gamers would like to admit.
Escalation – Attacks and Public Statements
April 2024
Ah, things started heating up faster than a GPU hitting 90°C under full load. Alyssa Mercante, once Kotaku’s senior editor and now something of a lightning rod for controversy, really turned heads with one of her most infamous takes: the tweet claiming, “You can’t be racist to white people.”
Yeah, she unironically said that.
You can’t be racist against white people pic.twitter.com/UxiXRY9EbH
— Alyssa Mercante (@alyssa_merc) April 27, 2024
Not exactly the best PR move when you’re already in the crosshairs of a community that’s skeptical of woke narratives seeping into their beloved hobby.
This tweet wasn’t just tone-deaf; many saw it as a textbook example of how the woke crowd can sometimes push narratives that feel more divisive than unifying – but hey, that’s just my opinion.
But then things got personal.
In May 2024, Mercante slid into Smash JT’s wife’s Facebook DMs. For someone who regularly cries harassment, this move looked…well, kinda ironic.
Accusations flew that she was stirring drama in Smash JT’s personal life – a move that pushed the dispute beyond online squabbles and into “why the hell would you do that?” territory. And yeah, this didn’t do much to soften public perception.
The saga didn’t stop there.
Later that same month, Smash JT’s website (SmashJT.com) faced a temporary shutdown over the weekend – apparently the result of a mass reporting campaign.
The instigator?
None other than Nick Calandra, Editor-in-Chief of Second Wind, who rallied people to report Smash JT’s Wix-hosted site, forcing it offline.
.@SmashJT He's repaying you taking him off by trying to get the website shut down anyway. pic.twitter.com/tV3uGFYOWX
— GIGABEAR (@GigabearPrime) May 27, 2024
Of course, it didn’t stay down for long; Smash JT managed to get it restored once the Wix offices opened on Monday. But it was a stark reminder that this wasn’t just online chatter – people were actively trying to take each other’s platforms offline.
The whole situation was quickly spiraling into a mess of petty vendettas, internet drama, and public smackdowns, setting the stage for what would become a full-blown legal war.
The Giant Bomb Challenge That Bombed Hard
June 2024
Just when you thought this saga couldn’t get any weirder, Alyssa Mercante took things to the next level, because why settle for online spats when you can throw down in real life, right?
During a Giant Bomb podcast appearance, Mercante made headlines with a bold, eyebrow-raising challenge to her critics: “Come fight me, physically.”
Yep, you read that right.
While most people hide behind keyboards and Twitter fingers, Alyssa was apparently ready to settle scores with some good old-fashioned fist-to-face combat. Or at least, that’s what it sounded like.
Video: Kotaku Editor Alyssa Mercante RUNS AWAY After Numerous People Accept Her Challenge to FIGHT | The Trent Report
But plot twist: when some brave souls actually took her up on the offer – because apparently keyboard warriors can sometimes get off their chairs – Mercante did a classic about-face and suddenly found reasons to backpedal.
The “fight me” bravado McFizzled faster than a soda left open overnight.
Predictably, this didn’t earn her any points with the community. Instead, it painted her as someone all talk and no action – kind of like that one guy who threatens to throw down at a party but ends up hiding behind the snack table.
The whole episode just added fuel to the fire, turning a public figure who thrives on controversy into an even bigger meme.
The Legal Battle Begins
December 2024
Things took a serious turn when Alyssa Mercante decided to throw down the legal gauntlet.
She filed a lawsuit against Jeff Tarzia – aka Smash JT – charging him with defamation, the somewhat eyebrow-raising claim of stochastic terrorism, and a funderful list of other things.
Yeah, that’s a mouthful, but basically means she accused him of indirectly inciting harm against her through his videos and commentary.
Smash JT wasn’t about to roll over, though.
He quickly hired Ron Coleman, a heavyweight attorney known for defending creators in online controversies, and fired back with a motion to dismiss the case. His stance? That his videos were protected free speech, exposing the truth of a public figure as he saw it rather than trying to incite anything illegal.
Image Source: Smash JT Lawsuit GiveSendGo Defense Fund BLOWS Past Goal, ENRAGING Haters! | SmashJT.com
The public response was…let’s say loud. Smash JT’s fans and supporters rallied around him, pouring funds into his legal defense faster than it took Concord to fail.
The outpouring showed just how much his message resonated with people who are fed up with the same tired narratives dominating mainstream gaming media.
In short: this wasn’t just a courtroom battle; it became a cultural flashpoint over free speech, accountability, and what happens when internet drama crosses into legal territory.
Digital Footprints and Deleted Tweets
December 2024
Shortly after the lawsuit began, sharp eyes noticed something curious: Alyssa Mercante was allegedly going on a tweet-deleting spree. Numerous tweets, some of which supposedly contained controversial or inflammatory statements, vanished into the digital ether faster than you can screenshot them.
This raised eyebrows for obvious reasons.
In any legal battle, your social media history isn’t just casual scrolling material – it’s potential evidence. And deleting tweets during ongoing litigation? That’s like trying to clean up the crime scene while the cops are still there.
Legal experts chimed in, warning that such digital vanishings could be seen as spoliation of evidence, fancy lawyer talk for “destroying or hiding evidence.” That can seriously backfire in court, sometimes even resulting in penalties or unfavorable judgments.
People are asking me about what happens when a litigant destroys social media evidence
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) December 15, 2024
and, yes, it’s what you’d thinkhttps://t.co/JOmqKaJhlK
So, while Mercante was busy supposedly scrubbing her timeline, observers wondered if this was just damage control or something more. In the internet age, your tweets don’t disappear, they just get buried, and people like Smash JT and his legal team?
They’ve got receipts and the internet is forever.
The Discord Revelation
March 2025
Just when you thought this saga had reached peak chaos, enter the paywalled Discord den of doom, a secret clubhouse where Alyssa Mercante and a handful of other suspicious characters plotted against content creators like Smash JT and Grummz aka Mark Kern.
How did this come to light?
Thanks to the absolute Chad, Gigabear, who reportedly paid the entrance fee to this digital lion’s den and exposed the twisted inner workings of the group.
This wasn’t your average gamer chat. Members included “Bee” (aka WashYourCrack on X), who had the audacity to post Grummz’s private login credentials in plain text; Alyssa Mercante herself; Nick Calandra of Second Wind; and other notable social leeches like McDizzle, Airbagged (a Twitter ban magnet), and thiefpal.
Within this pay-to-play harassment hub, they didn’t just toss insults – they actually plotted (that thing they always accuse right-leaning YouTubers of?).
Discussions included digging through databreaches to grab login info for Grummz, Airbagged coordinating mass community notes campaigns to flag and bury critics, and Alyssa Mercante actively soliciting help to dig up dirt on Smash JT’s past employment history.
This revelation painted Mercante and her crew as not just salty critics but part of a calculated, subscription-fueled harassment operation.
It’s one thing to debate opinions; it’s another entirely to be a part of a terminally online squad of leftist ideologues focused on taking people down.
Whether you call it justifiable defense or full-blown conspiracy, this Discord drama shines a glaring spotlight on just how ugly and organized modern gaming media feuds have become.
But can you please explain to us again how extreme everyone is that doesn’t agree with you politically, Alyssa?
color me fucking shocked https://t.co/fdmTrxmWAh pic.twitter.com/CSd7GN4pz4
— Alyssa Mercante (@alyssa_merc) May 10, 2025
The Fallout
Alyssa Mercante quietly exited the crumbling remains of a once-respected gaming site and tried to spin this lawsuit into a personal rebrand.
Now unemployed from gaming media, Mercante has seemingly pivoted from “senior editor” to professional victim – tweeting, posting, and begging for attention (and money) like it’s the only job left in town.
Video is available on my Patreon! https://t.co/IyCkWp7HQc pic.twitter.com/6r1T7NIVut
— Alyssa Mercante (@alyssa_merc) May 16, 2025
Rather than fade into irrelevance with the rest of Kotaku’s collapsing credibility, she’s now attempting to stay in the spotlight by using this lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to remain culturally relevant. Whether it’s through vague threats, Patreon paywalls, or fishing for support on social media, Mercante’s moves scream desperation – not principle.
Meanwhile, the broader industry isn’t “grappling” with diversity and inclusion – it’s choking on it.
For years, we’ve watched major publishers force identity politics into games under the guise of “representation,” then act surprised when fans walk away. It’s not that players are inherently against stories that feature female leads or anyone that’s “not white” – they’re against bad storytelling and patronizing lectures being disguised as games.
Just look at the scoreboard: Monster Hunter Wilds, Oblivion Remastered, and R.E.P.O. are generating massive hype because they’re focused on what matters – gameplay, immersion, and fun.
On the flip side, games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Avowed are being met with massive pushback, boycotts, and collapsing pre-orders for one reason: they forgot who their audience is.
They’re more concerned with making political statements than making games people actually want to play.
Mercante’s saga is just a symptom of a larger rot in games media – a space that used to report on the industry and now tries to morally police it.
Her fall from Kotaku, and her attempt to make a career out of canceling others while claiming victimhood, is a cautionary tale. It’s a peek behind the curtain of an industry so addicted to virtue signaling and Twitter approval that it forgot how to be fun.
So Why The Hell Am I Writing This Whole Thing?
What started as another routine puff piece from the remnants of legacy games media spiraled into a full-blown saga of petty grudges, legal threats, secret Discord plots, and one of the most bizarre internet meltdowns we’ve seen in years.
At the center of it all?
A journalist desperate to stay relevant, a YouTuber refusing to back down, and an industry so drunk on its own moral posturing that it forgot how to do its actual job.
The final push to write this came after watching Alyssa Mercante’s recent video, Hating Me Gets Them Views, Here’s My Story – a tear-soaked PR spin attempting to show herself as the victim while conveniently omitting the entire Discord campaign, the side of SBI that she didn’t write about, and the aggressive behavior that started and escalated this mess in the first place.
It’s a classic case of playing defense with selective memory – and if you only heard her side, you’d never guess how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Accountability matters, but it has to go both ways.
You can’t scream “harassment” while organizing smear campaigns in private servers. You can’t claim to be a champion of truth while deleting tweets and hiding behind paywalls. And you sure as hell can’t play the victim while threatening to fight people on a podcast and then running away.
That being said, please do NOT harass anyone mentioned in this article. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the whole story (for either side) – this is more of of “most memorable moments” of this journey for anyone that needed a little perspective after Alyssa’s video recent release.
This whole debacle exposed more than just one journalist’s questionable behavior – it peeled back the mask on a decaying media landscape where clout chasing has replaced ethics, where outrage is currency, and where criticism is only valid if it’s aimed in the “correct” direction.
The gaming community isn’t perfect – far from it – but it’s gotten real tired of being talked down to by people who don’t play games, don’t understand their audiences, and treat their platforms like personal soapboxes.
The response to this controversy wasn’t driven by hate — it was driven by exhaustion.
Exhaustion with the hypocrisy, the attempts at censorship, and endlessly trying to shame gamers into silence whenever they question the narrative.
If this situation teaches us anything, it’s that sunlight is still the best disinfectant. And when the mainstream won’t tell the truth, someone else will – whether the gaming media likes it or not.
This was a commentary article based on publicly available information and personal opinion. Readers are encouraged to form their own conclusions based on the sources cited.
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On the Floor
May 16, 2025
Holy hell this guys is spitting fire
Ayefkay
May 16, 2025
Lol thanks On the Floor! Seriously took me a lot longer to write than I thought it would and found myself endlessly adding more and more so I’m glad you liked it!
Captain Crunch
May 17, 2025
That’s not an article its a damn manifesto
Ayefkay
May 17, 2025
Lol yeaaaa sorry about the length Captain Crunch, but I hope you liked the info at least
Alanah
May 17, 2025
This is a very one-sided story
Ayefkay
May 17, 2025
Hey Alana, it’s supposed to be tbh. Not only did I make this after seeing Alyssa Mercante’s video that omitted all of this information and context, but I don’t personally feel like Smash JT covering a public figure (even if it was A LOT of videos) is necessarily a bad thing. Even if she wants to use “the things I said were jokes” in defense, it’s not deniable that she said them. So from my point of view, nothing he said was defamatory if it was reported factually. But that’s just my humble opinion. Thanks for stopping by regardless!
Caroline
May 18, 2025
I had watched the video and forgotten why/how Alyssa was relevant and I needed this article to remind me. Thank you. Very through and well-written. I still feel sorry for her but it’s mitigated by: why doesn’t just say “sbi had some issues and I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner”… unless she’s monetizing her victimhood? Reporters make corrections all the time and it’s considered a part of their credibility. She failed to make this correction and her credibility is destroyed, which is normal for the journalism space. Her job mess isn’t gamer’s fault.
Ayefkay
May 18, 2025
Hey Caroline, thanks for stopping by and for the kind words! I 100% agree and I think that’s why she’s always in the middle of all of these problems – she seems to defend left-leaning voices (no matter what evidence comes out) while dehumanizing anyone that doesn’t agree with her politically or ideologically.
Caroline
May 20, 2025
It’s certainly an interesting case study. It’s also interesting to speculate on the wider implications of GamerGate themes. For example: what if, in the context where the journalism space won’t accept people with narcissistic personality disorder, if those who went into that space saw video games + video game industry reporting as a low hanging fruit? Like a vulnerable population. Wherein they could thrive in the context where they only value how they appear, not actual facts or work. Something journalism in other spaces would weed out quite quickly because can’t be ego driven/superficial in that space and get away with it, typically. Gamers tend to get really looked down on by NPD folks, I’ve noticed.
I was talking to chatgpt earlier this evening and it was conflating video game industry with gamer culture. I set it straight, of course. But it’s so interesting to me that the same people who report on the video game industry, report on video games, and which of them are gamers, in the sense of the established culture? Which do we, as part of gamer culture, want taken seriously and how? Perhaps some journalists managed to conflate the devaluing of “video games aren’t real” and build a career on it and then also commented on industry goings-on in that context.
There are also tons of implications about… gamers being this sort of vulnerable cluster of men (mostly men, and those who support men’s rights) who get attacked but then defend themselves and get made to look bad for doing so, over and over. When really, it’s great that gamer culture is almost becoming this men’s rights movement. Organization around a good cause = good.
Anyway I dunno but I thought you might enjoy my random thoughts lol. Thanks for replying.
Ayefkay
May 20, 2025
Well, I absolutely do appreciate your random thoughts, so thank you. I don’t personally feel like gaming journalism was infected, per se, by individuals who saw gaming as low hanging fruit, but I do feel like the journalists were curated by media corporations in order to continue to propagate their likeminded virtues throughout the industry. The gaming industry is projected to increase in value to $505B – $665B by 2030 (depending on the report), so they’re highly incentivized to control the narrative. In gaming, you have basically Vox Media, G/O Media, and Ziff Davis that operate as the gaming media echo chamber. Multiple media corporations that own multiple publications in gaming (Ziff Davis being the most, I think; last I checked they were up to 14 including IGN, MetaCritic, Eurogamer, etc.).
I know it sounds a little “conspiracy-theorist”, but the facts are that these media corporations have been buying out smaller publications for decades and do control a large part of the media as a whole.
Regarding men – there ARE some implications about men’s rights and the “male loneliness epidemic”, which we see symptoms of in gaming since gaming is a historically isolationist activity, but I think men are just a bit lost in general and are searching for their societal role in the world’s changing dynamics. It may sound harsh coming from a guy, but I think men should focus more on bettering themselves mentally and socially rather than regressing into some form of online dogpiling that I sometimes see online. It’s good to defend themselves with facts and logic, but unfortunately – sometimes egos are hurt and facts and logic are put aside in favor of vicious attacks (from both sides).
It may sound hypocritical of me, saying that while we’re literally commenting on an article I wrote hyper-focused on two people, but I also TRY to not devolve my arguments into petty name calling or harassment and instead try to express my opinions based on the facts of a situation. I may be sarcastic as hell and definitely not impartial on the things I write about, but I personally believe that we don’t have enough people able to cohesively express their opinions without being a complete ass in the process.
Anyways, sorry for MY ramblings lol. I love gaming (the industry and the culture) and appreciate the opportunity to talk about it. Take care!
Caroline
May 20, 2025
I have so much I wanna say but I’ve got this other project I’m working on for a few days (so like forever) that I gotta devote my attention to. I’m definitely going to educate myself more on the top-down interests with regards to journalism and gaming so thanks for the start in that.
I saw an asmon chatter say “not rambling, weaving” of Trump earlier today and I said I was gonna use that and so here I am using it. You’re not rambling, you’re weaving! And I appreciate the thoughts muchly.
I think that men are put down as little children and for their whole lives with regards to feeling emotions to the point where they’re trained to trivialize their own emotions and it is a tragedy. I use the example of how The Fifth Element is a love story (the fifth element is a chick who fell mutually in love with Corban to be there when the fifth element, love, as needed to save all life) but people just see it as Die Hard in space because they mentally don’t allow themselves to be in touch with the only thing that makes life meaningful. It’s like “nerd” media has to be encoded to let men feel emotions and not acknowledge that that’s what’s happening. We could write a whole book on that but I just wanted to mention: emotions! And I’m an INTJ so it’s not like I’m just spewing women emotions everywhere. I think you’re already onto it but you said “mentally and socially” which is almost “more attuned with emotions” but not quite! And also I like to call the actual victims where I see them. Otherwise it can easily turn into a victim blaming situation when they (all men) were literally targeted as little kids to not acknowledge a big part of themselves.
Ayefkay
May 22, 2025
Thanks for saying so and I can fully appreciate the reference, I got my Leeloo Dallas multi-pass. Btw that fight scene in the opera – one of the most underrated vibes in cinematic history. I might be a little too into 5th Element tbh…
And I don’t feel like you’re “spewing women emotions” (despite the funderful imagery lol). I can definitely see what you’re saying, BUT from my perspective I do think that men can be in touch with the whole spectrum of emotions – we’re just kinda conditioned to not show them a lot. Which is problematic in itself. I think that probably leads to a lot of men bottling up those emotions, which can lead to difficulty opening up and when they finally do (due to stunted emotional growth), sometimes they just suck at expressing themselves.
Maybe I’m just too harsh on other men, but I also feel like at some point they need to take responsibility for their own emotions and personal growth though. Not to say all men should just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps and man up”, but I feel like if you’re at a point where you’re holding onto that chip on your shoulder just to leverage it as an excuse, it no longer becomes a valid excuse.
But, again, maybe I have the privilege of saying that simply because I don’t really see myself in that light and it’s probably harder to see from their perspective. Anyways, thanks again and good luck on your project!