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Immigration officer has surprising questions for Japanese pro Smash Bros. player traveling abroad

Casey Baseel Feb 27, 2019
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”What’s the purpose of your visit?” is a common question to get asked at immigration. “Who do you main?” is not.

If you have an unusual job, it can sometimes lead to some awkward conversations with immigration officers when traveling abroad. That chance is especially high if your job is something that most people are more likely to think of as entertainment than a profession, like playing video games.

So when Japanese e-sports competitor Abadango (@abadango on Twitter) recently traveled abroad to take part in a tournament, he probably expected that he was going to get a few follow-up questions while going through immigration, and sure enough, he did.

俺の入国審査は
審「なにしにきた？」
あ「ゲームトーナメント」
審「なんのゲーム？」
あ「スマブラ」
審「何使ってんの？」
あ「インクリング」
審「インクリングかよ(首振り)俺はドンキー使ってるよ、他には？」
あ「ワリオとメタナイト」
審「メタナイトはいいね、でもインクリングはくそだ」

— あばだんご🍡 | SNB (@Abadango) February 22, 2019

“What is the purpose of your visit?” the official asked. “I’m competing in a video game tournament,” replied Abadango (who doesn’t specify which country the exchange took place in). “What game is the tournament for?” asked the official, to which Abadango answered “Smash Bros.”

▼ Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the newest game in the series

It’s not uncommon for immigration officials to ask for specific pieces of information like that, and it often seems like just a simple spot check to see if the traveler will get flustered, which could be a sign that he’s lying and thus needs to be questioned. However, it turned out that the officer talking to Abadango had a genuine interest in the competitive gaming scene, because his next question was:

“What character do you use?”

For those who haven’t counted, the latest iteration of Nintendo’s Smash Bros. series, Ultimate, has a whopping 75 characters on its roster. Abadango’s favorite, he told the immigration official, is Inkling, and not only did the official recognize the guest fighter hailing from the Splatoon franchise, he had an opinion on the character too, reacting with:

“Seriously, Inkling? (shakes head) I use Donkey Kong. What other characters do you use?”

Abadango said that aside from his main, Inkling, he also sometimes plays as Wario or Meta Knight, and these choices seemed to go over better with the official, who said:

“Yeah, Meta Knight is cool. But Inkling is shit.”

The sudden discovery of their shared video gaming passion had other Twitter users leaving comments such as:

“Did…did the Inkling do something mean to the immigration official?”
“People all over the world hate the Inkling’s Splat Roller attack.”
“For a second, I thought they were going to take you into the interrogation room and make you beat the official at Smash to prove you really are a pro gamer.”
“I bet if you had said you use Cloud or Link or one of the other characters with lots of fans overseas, even more immigration officers would have joined in the conversation.”

▼ Abadango playing as Inkling

In the end, Abadango wasn’t asked to demonstrate his Smash Bros. prowess, not did he and the immigration officer engage in a battle to determine whether Inkling or Donkey Kong is the superior character, since the inevitable call for a rematch which always occurs when playing fighting games would have held up the line. Still, it’s a sign that the Super Smash Bros. fan community spreads around the globe, plus a story that has a happier ending than this one of a Japanese dad doing all he can to break his Smash-loving son’s spirit.

Source: Twitter/@Abadango via Jin
Top image: YouTube/Super Smash Bros.

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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s a little sad that Abadango missed a golden opportunity to use the Patlabor Movie quote of “combat” for the reason for his visit.