With esports getting massive and leagues popping up for all manner of games, does the activity have a problem with casual and actual racism? Did the online gaming culture that these young kids were raised on have a negative impact on them, perhaps without them even knowing it? I ask these questions because as the activity continues to grow at a break-neck pace, more and more “pros” continue to get popped for racist and derogatory remarks and gestures while streaming, which is now their jobs.
And now these pros are butting up against the rules of conduct on places like Twitch, pushing them right to the very limit. The whole thing is something that can be seen in other areas, such as sports and politics. The rules for people like you or I don’t seem to apply to the big stars that are the ones, in part, brining in the money and views to these platforms and leagues. Or at least they don’t apply to the same manner.
Take the most recent case of Josh “Eqo” Corona of the Philadelphia Fusion, a team that is a part of the newly launched Overwatch League. During a recent stream, Corona was playing and made the comment “I’m Korean,” while using his fingers to pull back his eyes in an attempt to look the part. He did this in response to someone saying he wasn’t, in fact, Korean. This was such a problem that the Philadelphia Fusion issued an apology for Corona’s slant-eyed gesture.
During the very same week, DSP, a much-loathed and toxic streamer, earned himself a temporary ban for calling out the looks of someone in his chat. It would seem that both of these actions would violate the new Twitch code of conduct, but only one, the one not on a team or brining in lots of money and attention to the platform, got a ban. The clip in question has been removed and his team stated they are “working on a punishment now,” but you can see the image below.
Corona took to Twitter to address the matter saying:
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“At the time I wasn’t aware that this might offend anyone if u watch my stream you will probably know that I love koreans and all I do is compliment them all the time … this gesture was never with the intention to mock someone.”
“Obviously l apologize to anyone that got offended this clip got is out of context a bit since I was complimenting the Koreans before the clip and after the clip and did the gesture more in a form of wanting to express myself being like them since I admire them not making fun.”
[/perfectpullquote]Do I think Corona is racist? No. Do I think Corona may lack an understanding of his actions and how they might be seen online and with impressionable fans? Yes. His opening line of “At the time I wasn’t aware that this might offend anyone” says a lot about his understanding.
Shit talking online has always been a part of the activity in one manner or another, but when youths grow up hearing it so often and engaging in it, there is an argument to be made that it has an impact without them even realizing it. And it should be noted that this isn’t an isolated incident in the activity on a professional level with other pros getting popped, even a play-by-play guys for CS:Go.
Outside of the world of eports these sorts of things have serious ramifications. When you play in a league and on a professional team your actions have far more weight than some idiot playing Halo online for fun. Teams have owners to answer to, who have sponsors to answer to, and a league to deal with. You now have a job, and one where millions of dollars are doled out. Sports have been here before and deal with it as seen with Yuli Gurriel who plays for the Houston Astros baseball team. He was suspended for for doing the same slant-eyes gesture for five games.
This has happened in other sports as well and many have used the very same excuse that Corona pulled with apologizing if people took offense. These are the growing pains epsorts will have to deal with head on and quickly, before sponsors start questioning things and leagues start implementing rules that change the activity as a whole. Yes, this is a case of someone doing something dumb, and if it was some random person online no one would be talking, but this is a member of a professional sports team and so it becomes important.
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