VALORANT Masters in LondonThe second day of the Playoffs started last week with an exciting three-map match between VCT EMEA darkhorse FUT Esports and VCT China legend Champions EDward Gaming (EDG). The tension was high throughout the series, FUT Esports bringing the banter to the stage and getting the audience in return.
However, what followed after the series was more problematic. FUT Esports player Efe “s0pp” Tur became the target of online harassment and death threats due to alleged racism. The clip where s0pp yelled ”ZmjjKK, you can’t hold sh**!” on stage was misconstrued as a racist remark by some VCT China fans.
The S0pp case is not the only one of its kind. In recent months, there have been numerous incidents of parasocial behavior, cyber-toxicity, and boundary crossing from members of the VALORANT community affecting players, staff, and their loved ones.
Fans of the VALORANT games have been going too far, and perhaps for Riot Games to take a stand.
Players Will Always Be People First
”It touched me because of all the hate. This morning I got really supportive messages from my players and friends, they know I didn’t do anything wrong,” s0pp shared with Hotspawn media after his second Playoffs game. “I don’t think it affected me much in this game. It helped me to know who I am and how I want to act.”
While s0pp thankfully seems to have recovered from the wave of abuse, this should not be the norm for esports players. I think most players would agree that banter is acceptable on all sides, including opposition teams and fans.
The same should apply to critical feedback. If a player or team says or does something hurtful, they must answer to the public.
Not only did s0pp’s racist allegations appear to be unfounded, but the language and behavior displayed by his “critics” clearly crossed the line. Death threats can cause significant damage to a person’s mental health. Words can hurt, especially when they scream a wave of thousands of words flooding a single social media account.
It is not easy to be touched by those words. It’s just human.
With all the media, amazing event trailers, and amazing achievements, we easily fall into the habit of worshiping professional players. To some extent, that may be inevitable. Players will always be the face of their esports titles and are therefore held to high standards of social and professional conduct.
However, before their work as actors, they were always people first.
Whenever you make public comments about a player, please keep that in mind. Remember that there is a person on the other end reading your words, not a soulless machine. In a time when most stories are made over the internet with growing expressions, be the one who shows compassion on purpose.
Online Hate Doesn’t Just Affect Gamers
The compassion I talked about earlier – the understanding that players are people first and deserve a constructive response – applies to everyone involved in these incidents. Responding to hate with more hate will escalate the conversation, causing harm on all sides, including your own.
As user X (ex-Twitter) pointed out: ”Chinese fans are acting NOT racist towards them in the slightest. Yes, they should be disciplined (thanks, Edg, for speaking up), but there is no situation where you can ‘retaliate’ with racism.”
Furthermore, one group that is easily overlooked but often most affected is the online hatred of players by their loved ones. Following the loss of FULL SENSE to FUT Esports at the Masters London Swiss Stage, the mother of the team’s Head Coach. Thanaphat “THEE” Limpaphan suffered from panic attacks and irregular heartbeats due to negative comments directed at the group. This incident makes FULL SENSE and YOU talk.
”Now he is feeling better and is able to live a normal life at home,” emphasized UWE in his statement. ”This is my fault, because I didn’t stop him. I couldn’t stop him early. As his son, my heart is very sad right now.”
VALORANT air talent It’s “Yinsu” Collins and enter this article in his Substack. He described his personal experience as a teammate of Fnatic Jake “Boaster” Howlett and share the experiences of spouses with other players and loved ones.
I recommend that everyone read the whole piece. What stood out to me was the helplessness described by many as they were forced to watch their loved ones deal with online toxicity from the sidelines.
”I can’t just go online and start explaining why certain comps, certain strats, list moves, etc., so I have to sit here and ‘take it’ while people say bad things about not only Ethan but people I’m good friends with and care about are messed up,” explained NRG. Ethan “Ethan” Arnoldmy colleague Kelly in the article.
Like many professional athletes, Kelly has gained a lot of experience managing her emotions in response to online indifference. And according to him, positive comments from fans make a big difference, too.
Chaos Games Time Should Step in and Help
Riot Games usually manages to punish players for problem or in-game behavior, but not so much when it comes to public harassment towards players. But this indifference was called into question when the official broadcast of Masters London showed a disgusting image of the fans Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang and s0pp, who had already faced death threats online at the time.
Although Leo Faria, Riot Games’ Head of VALORANT Esportsapologized for the mistake, some members of the community wanted the developer to take responsibility and ”protect their own authorized player.
I understand that feeling and agree that the picture should not have been shown on the broadcast. However, I’m not sure how much Riot can realistically gain from this. The Company may prohibit certain signs or remove misbehaving fans from its events on the site.
Almost impossible to control is any speech on the Internet. A public statement in response to s0pp’s lawsuit would be an option. However, in the end, Riot can’t fine or make an example of fans as it is it does and professional players in such situations.
Online hate is a problem that is connected to many things outside of the Riot domain. Therefore, I believe that the most promising course of action for the publisher would be education and awareness campaigns that focus more on the human side of their popular players.
In our growing world of online gamers, some of us need a reminder that we all deserve boundaries and a basis of respect.
