EQO fined and suspended for offensive gesture on personal stream

#1

LordOfHorns

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Does anyone have a clip of what he did?

#2

MadMeH

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He did asian eyes using his fingers, but the world is offended about everything these days, so nothing to see really.

#6

gabeconte

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Yeah everybody get's offended so easily these days over tiny little things, such as racism. It's really just ridiculous, PC culture is killing us!!!!!!!!!! How am I supposed to function without my casual racism!!!!!!!!!!

#32

lithian

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I think it's high time to create some new laws to fine, get in front of court, and if necessary jail people like you, who are doing harm to society on purpose for no other reason then projecting personal frustrations. SJWs belong in jail. If nothing else, just make them accountable to financial losses they cause. Since 99% of them are income-less underachievers, they should go to jail.

#3

DixR

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Thats so dumb. People get offended so easily these days.

#24

DixR

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Thanks for proving my point guys.

#27

blakku

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I would feel offended for these downvotes.

#30

Sayabi

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You're welcome, feel free to indulge in your own ego and tell yourself just how clever you are

#31

DixR

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Whatever. People cant make jokes anymore it seems.

#33

Sayabi

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It isn't about making a joke it's about showing some respect and act like a decent human being. There are tons of ways to make humor without falling into easy discriminatory jokes. Like seriously does behaving correctly in order to live as a community sound like a strange concept to you? Are you so self-entitled that you would want to make your own deprecating humor go before the respect of people?

#35

DixR

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My family is mostly arabs, yet I never got offended by people making jokes about arabs. Just laugh it off instead of getting offended and ask for retributions. But whatever. Just ask Blizzard to fined and suspend a guy for making a mistake once.

#45

Sayabi

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I'm sorry to inform you that your opinion is not representative of your entire community. I thought you could realize that by yourself.

#71

KabaL

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Cadeau pour toi http://prntscr.com/j231ry

#4

bambusbjorn

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i swear this drama in OWL is scripted they probably told EQO to do some stupid stuff to get fined and benched for 3 -4 games so they can let shadowburn play cuz bigger fanbase without getting a shitstorm why this guy and why that guy is still benched. otherwise i cant explain

#5

petra

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that is the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard

#8

alexdelarge

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mayb this players are AI robots or computer programs in our simulation

#21

Apettysum

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*paid actors

#19

Toga

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Think you need to take off your tinfoil hat for a bit and chill dude

#20

Involv3r

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Yes I can explain, the KGB forced EQO to do it, just Putin looking out for his boy.

#38

Hafficool

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algjörlega

#50

KuroiRyuu9625

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You're either trolling, or you don't get it either.

#69

Hafficool

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its a very sarcastic icelandic word sorry was making fun of him

#7

MaSc

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This amounts of money and the punishments in general are getting absurd.

#9

Spinozone

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Can those complaining that "everyone is so easily offended" at the very least recognize that Blizzard has dominant interest in expanding OWL's viewership base to every possible demographic? They have no financial incentive to pacify the hurr-durr apathetic who'll watch anyway, and overriding reason to divvy petty fines so, e.g., none of the next thousand potential viewers in East Asia turn away.

If you disagree, I'm sure there's a seat reserved in xQc's chat.

#34

lithian

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The assumption that this petty crap would turn "viewers in East Asia" away, is the the real racism called the 'soft bigotry of low expectations'.

#40

megumino2

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I think what you are saying has some logic to it, but in the end, it is as obscure as you saying Blizzard is worried about viewership tanking in East Asia because of what EQO did -- no one in East Asia would really know about what EQO does unless it is publicised/no one in East Asia cares about the soft bigotry of low expectations unless it's publicised

#79

Caemor

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if they really want to expand more into other reagions they should give them (korean/... official owl streams) at least nearly the same equipment/stats as the english one gets

#10

Elendil_OW

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This is ridiculous. As an Asian I don't even find the gesture offensive, and depending on the person's face and expression, I could even find it funny. The gesture would only be offensive to non-asians thinking that it's offensive to us (like white-knighting people, PC people and people that like shoving their own opinion down other people's throats).

Next thing you know they start suspending players for farting on-stream (lul Dafran).

#13

twerp

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a single asian dude isn't offended so it's not an offensive gesture 4Head. i'm chinese and while i don't personally care so much it's not really funny or hard to see how someone could be offended.
eqo is a kid and i don't blame him for not being so mindful, but you should understand why blizzard wouldn't want to be represented in this light

...also pretty sure it was a korean OWL player who called attention to the clip in the first place with a caption of "wtf"

#65

F1NAL

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it was fissure and he also made a joke about it but the majority is even too stupid to understand it. but nice that you have a clue at what you are talking about.

#67

twerp

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https://twitter.com/asher_ow/status/980544103749369857

4Head

#11

Generation1

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I don't know if the punishment fits the crime but people are definitely underestimating the severity. Philly spent 20 mil and Bliz spent many many more millions and they need all the advertising they can get. Advertisers don't want any kind of racist or offensive controversy. Doesn't matter how offensive it really is, it's just bad for branding always.

#12

Pixelfish

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Lots of divide over this one. Definitely not an eqoal agreement within the community.

#14

darkcvc

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https://media.giphy.com/media/iSxPmDWr97248/giphy.gif

#15

bweesh

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I'm not going to voice my opinion on this, but I do think it's funny that a lot of non-asian people are telling asian people what they should and shouldn't be offended by

#52

Ammo

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It's how we do in the US of A baby.

#16

foxes

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Somewhere in the background Shadowburn is biting his lip/pumping his fist.

#29

Hudsen

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Supposedly Snillo is starting tonight according to Slasher

https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/981996733013086209

#17

ReDone

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this is actually bullsh*t

#22

Pixelfish

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....did you just censor yourself?

#28

gabeconte

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Mom isn't looking dude, you can swear here. Promise we won't tell.

#18

nerisone

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imo should have been a warning but blizzard seems to be very strict on these occurrences

#23

murasaki

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It makes sense to do this. Maybe the fine is a little extreme but he was making the gesture in direct reference to Korean people, and with Korean players making up about 40% of the leagues playerbase, blizzard have to be ultra strict about this in order to avoid alienating anyone.

#25

Farsil

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You guys don't seem to realize that many people are simply not used to political correctness, I see a lot of difference concerning this matter between EU and USA in general, with EU citizens being way more relaxed in general: maybe because we're used to teasing each other?

Anyway, this does not mean that racist behavior should go unpunished, simply that players come from different places, and may simply not have the background to understand that a simple gesture that you used to do when you were a kid is actually part of a racist subculture. The right course of action in my opinion is not to harshly punish the players, but to educate them to behave properly: in this regard a fine like that is way beyond extreme.

#26

hamsolo

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Are you offended? Irrelevant.

Sigh, I could copy paste from xQc's many threads. Blizzard is charging millions for a franchise, signing big deals with sponsors, they are throwing the kitchen sink at OWL. Blizzard is selling the dream gamers have, to the corporate world. They don't need kids spoiling this. Sure 18/19/20 year old males may make up the rosters for the most part, but this is bigger than some kids playing a game for Blizzard.

Regardless of this, there is no place in society for homophobia, racism etc. There certainly is none in eSports either. You may say - big deal/why the outrage/people get too offended etc. but then, that would make you a knuckle dragging moron.

#36

lithian

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"Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be manners"

George Carlin

#37

gabeconte

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Damn dude........really told us all.......really makes you think..........that you're a complete fucking idiot.........yeah......sounds about right.......

#39

twerp

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ya in that same conversation he said there's nothing with with dropping the hard R (and every other racist term)

i thought george carlin was a genius and hilarious in high school. looking back i find he was kind of stupid

#41

megumino2

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looking for the meaning of life in a comedian feelsbadman

#42

twerp

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FeelsAmazingMan

#44

petra

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pack it up everyone we got facism talk on a website about overwatch esports

#43

Malvo

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What’s the worst case scenario if someone was offended by this? Also, I never see anyone who is actually offended. I just see people defending those who might be offended.

#51

KuroiRyuu9625

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That's odd, Asher, a Korean OWL player, seemed offended.

#54

Malvo

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Ok, so now what? I asked what the worst case scenario for being offended is. Does he need psychological treatment? Can he no longer play overwatch?

#56

skweerty

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i also get offended if a guy stinks in the train but i cant ban him from the train :(

#46

verb

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OWL growing pains everyone, just move on

#47

Wombat

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EQO dun goofed

#48

no

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Unfortunately, Even after the community backlash over their previous allegations and punishments, the only thing that can right the wrongs is a player union. I can only hope that the need for a player union only becomes more evident as these types of actions from OWL continue. I'll leave it at this quote, as it sums up everything I have to say quite well.

“Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance” - Albert Maysles

EDIT: I see how this situation has more substance and OWL even used the correct term of "racially insensitive", albeit as a technicality. However, I'm more against the systemic problem of OWL using their own context to justify an action. In my option, the correct response to this situation would be to leave it at PHI Fusions discretion and just not to get involved. As more of a thought experiment, when someone actually drops the N-word with a racist context and intent, what the actual punishment would be for that. A 100k fine and suspension for a year? two? indefinitely?

#49

tamagao

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To be fair, OWL's involvement with the punishment was minimal. They fined him 1k and the Fusion decided on the rest of the punishment.

#53

lune

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pussy ass league tbh

#55

skweerty

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not game of the year but laughter of the year

#57

poinTOW

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The path that OWL took is understandable,but its manouvered so poorly that im pretty sure it will backfire somehow.Waiting for someone to get a stage ban for joking around italian stuff like pizza mandolino or...Berlusconi.

TL;DR Shit is turning into an Orwellian nightmare too fast

#58

wentaway

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https://youtu.be/xcFJnQFG7L4

Just for the sake of it, I find most of those sketches funny, but they are in a specific context, which isn't a kid's friendly esport league.

Can I find offensive if a random guy starts making jokes about me being an Italian mafioso? Yep I probably would, and would probably start making fun of him the same way (ain't that difficult), but I''m not a kid.

Would I find it offensive and deeming a fine/punishment if a random "celebrity" would make fun of Italians in front of my nephew (she's 12), I surely will.

Am I offended by a friend of mine calling me frocio (a.k.a. faggot in Italian), nah not really and he doesn't find me calling him nigga offensive either, why? 'cause we are friends, I'm not making fun of his skin color and him of my sexual orientation, I'm making fun of him and he's making fun of me.

What's the diffrence you might ask? Well it's context, it means everything, making fun of race/gender/nationality is wrong, period but contextulized MIGHT be acceptable on a person to person level.

Doing it on a stream (or on a stage) with thousand of persons you know nothing about, is simply wrong.

#60

poinTOW

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Im absolutely fine with what you wrote there,but there are stuffs that are concerning aswell in the players direction and i mean:

1)Can those players actually defend themselves and have their word matter to justify what happened?As it seems to me,not quite.
2)If what EQO did was so wrong and obnoxious,shouldn't Twitch fine him aswell?

The context is obviously somethign to keep in mind,but i'm honestly not liking the way those situations are handled right now.

#62

gabeconte

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Twitch has been awful about addressing racist and toxic behavior, they can't be bothered to police their own platform. Especially when their biggest streamers like Dr. Disrespect do that shit (his incredibly racist and awful Chinese accent he used to do all the time).

It's a bigger problem with the culture of gaming at large, where racism and toxic behavior are encouraged by peers, and unpunished by platform holders. You can see this kind of shit on any big stream.

#64

wentaway

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One doesn't exclude the other.

The players should def have some sort of union, but more than for when they are blatantly wrong, for when they are treated unfairly (e.g. salary compared to what the league and the orgs actually make), due to the fact of being the weak party in a contract with billionaires.

Twitch makes money out this drama, a lot of money, they don't even have a "public face" considering their top staff still is under the Justin.tv umbrella (that's the email domain they use for business), why should they fine a user that creates drama? Drama brings viewers.

To be completely honest on a personal level I don't believe should be Blizzard's job either to fine/suspend the players, but the org the players are contracted to, but this is another story.

#59

evar

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As an Asian I'm not particular offended, but I can see other Asians might be offended.
People who are defending Eqo are the ones that are over reacting and saying how Blizzard should have just gave him a warning.
What he received IS a warning, a $1000 fine from Blizzard? That's as a small of warning as you can get.

Also for people who are saying that this is a joke, it's not racist. So where do you draw the line between a joke and racism? Does he have to stretch his eyes and speak in a mocking accent? Or more?

#61

K2

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It’s just total bs that he got fined. Every Jackie Chan and Cheech & Chong movie is 100 times more offensive and it’s a family comedies

#63

PoppingOffIRL

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And i thought Brigitte was cancer. Thanks for stepping it up!

#66

flippant

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I think people are looking at this as a singular incident and the punishment, rather than at the consequences or implication if Blizzard chose not to reprimand him in a meaningful way. The danger of publicly using racist humor in a setting that is not explicitly built for it risks more than just offending people, it risks some people using it as validation for genuinely racist beliefs. This danger grows the larger the audience is, and grows even more when the individual/platform is sponsored by influential companies.

It is completely different for comedic settings. They are understood to be offensive for laughter, and not meant as discrimination.

Now, in this specific case, did the offense warrant the harsh punishment? I don't necessarily agree, but I think Blizzard is probably getting a bit tired of having to deal with these issues and are trying hard to make the punishment substantial enough for these players to start taking their public image much more seriously. They probably realized by now that a few thousand grand is not as important to them than their streaming.

Note I'm Asian, female, don't take offense to humor, often say words that many here would frown upon, but know better than to do that in front of people I am not familiar with.

#68

BenTylerOW

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Waiting for the news ' fined and suspended for breathing ' haHAA

#70

KabaL

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On a racism level from 1 to 100000 (100000 = genocide), his gesture is probably very low like 1 or 2. But it stills racism.
And something people tends to forgot, every OWL Pro Players are like public icons.
PUBLIC ICONS.
They are models for 32432423434534553 kids.
They can't spread any level of intolerances.
Eqo fined is totally normal.

#72

Urkara

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Yeah I think if Blizzard have time to watch every players stream and fine them for things , they could use that time to actually improve the game (SR system , team queue ex.) or balancing the game.

#73

Wombat

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That's a really dumb comment

#77

Urkara

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Why dude ? You think the game has a really good SR system or well balanced ?

#75

penda

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You really think Blizzard has people watching every stream all the time?
The reason they saw this was because another owl player posted the video on twitter with the caption “wtf”

#76

Urkara

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To be honest I don't care if they watch it or not. But they should focus on making the game a better version of itself

#78

petra

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i assure you that there are completely separate teams that work on overwatch league player management and overwatch game development... it would be extremely redundant if people working on creating the game were expected to help keep players in line with the code of conduct

#74

accountseverywhere

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its like dis. People shouldn't do things like this. Serious racism is a big deal. And even when the person does not have a mega racist agenda it could possibly be a very meaningful attack to someone who has been a serious victim. It also sort of generally increases the acceptance of casual racism when nothing is done about it.

HOWEVER.

Why do they do it? This guy is not likely a serious racist. If he was his contract would be terminated immediately. He did it NOT because of the people it seriously hurts or the fact that he wants to encourage casual racism. He did it BECAUSE of the social justice warriors. These days kids and young adults are the scourge of the earth and if you let them know how much you are going to FREAK OUT over something then they will do it and they will think that it is funny as hell. That's why he did it. That's why he smiled when he did it. Because he knew he just freaked out a bunch of ninny SJWs. Are the social justice warriors in the right for FREAKING OUT? No. Is he in the right for being an asshole douchebag who also just did something that likely SERIOUSLY hurt a few people? Hell no. Both sides are poor to horrible examples of what a human being should be and if you side with either YOU ARE WRONG.

That being said if you CALMLY state that it is wrong and why. THEN YES. YOU ARE RIGHT. good job

#80

runoke

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So why is this even mildly racist? Did he say that people with asian eyes suck, or are inferior or smth?

#81

LordOfHorns

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OWL only punished him slightly. Giving him a one thousand dollar fine is nothing to scoff at, but nothing severe. Teams probably want to stay out of conflict, and to set a standard Philly took this minor offense and made it something more