Life would be too simple without ‘heated gamer moments’ from various individuals that have cultivated a following on various streaming platforms.
Whether it’s Pewdiepie’s infamous comment while playing PUBG or a personality flaming rival teams in tournaments that results in their quitting gaming entirely, it seems not a day can go by without some personality cracking at the seams as they get steamrolled by another player.
This time, the events are circling around Minki ‘Viol2t’ Park (pronounced Violet) playing for the San Francisco Shock as a flex support player.
Footage of @viol2t_ow harassing me live on stream to his viewers. @Twitch @overwatchleague @SFShock pic.twitter.com/inq9x7LTbg
— Hoshi (@HoshizoraOW) July 27, 2020
Minki Park has been in the hot seat before with comments directed towards Chinese players that end up in South Korean servers for Overwatch, which led to China readily referring to him as ‘Brother Toilet’ as he allegedly requested Chinese players to go home and ‘kill themselves’.
This is arguably a bit more heated than what ultimately led Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel to part ways with the Overwatch League, as his comments would readily get him into trouble with Blizzard who would be startingly quick to levy a fine and suspension to the former Dallas Fuel tank; this time, however, and it’s the San Francisco Shock that is corralling in their more…troublesome players.
In the San Francisco Shock official Discord, General Manager of the Shock, Chris Chung, made a statement regarding Minki Park’s behavior:
Today we were made aware of an incident involving Viol2t’s in game behavior. Viol2t’s aactions were not in line with what we expect of our nstaff and players in or out of game. The organization and Viol2t would like to extend an pology for this situation.
We have discussed the severity of these actions with Viol2t and will be taking the following actions to ensure that this behavior does not continue.
Viol2t will be receiving a fine from The San Francisco Shock.
We will be suspending Viol2t for the upcoming match against the Houston Outlaws.
We will continue to work with Viol2t and monitor his in-game behavior closely to ensure this is the last incident of its kind.
A slap on the wrist considering the remarks past and present that have led some to voice opinions on various slurs being worse than others; regardless, Viol2t will be noticeably absent in the upcoming match against the Outlaws this weekend.
The Overwatch League does not have a clause stating that organization punishments operate in a zero-sum fashion; Blizzard can still opt to punish the player to make a further example of him, which is likely why the San Francisco Shock wanted to push their punishment live in an unspoken message to Blizzard that they’re handling it.
