The first female member of an Overwatch Contenders team is now also the first female player to leave an Overwatch Contenders team. Ellie had joined the team Second Wind, but after a barrage of comments regarding the legitimacy of her skill and ad hoc speculation about her having someone else play the game for her, she has opted to step down from the team per owner Justin Hughes.
You may remember that this is almost exactly the same sort of harassment faced by professional player Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim. That’s sure a coincidence.
Meanwhile, over 18,000 Korean Overwatch accounts have been publicly announced as banned for toxic play, ranging from offensive language to intentionally throwing games. Which is definitely a lot of people who are no longer making the game worse for everyone, although it does spark some consideration about the game’s overall community given the number. (It might also lead to some consideration about whether or not naming the accounts is productive, although that’s an outstanding issue.)
Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen reactions, Ellie has opted to step down from the team. We hope you continue to support her in her ventures in Overwatch as we will
— Second Wind (@SecondWindGG) January 2, 2019
stop doing "social experiments" where you pretend to be someone affected by social oppressions and instead just listen to those fucking people
— dante 🌹 (@videodante) January 4, 2019
Oh yeah, and the “social experiment” excuse looks a lot less likely now too.
I have received screenshots of Punisher in a private message conversation with a woman Overwatch player 'Catsui', who was not aware of this incident until recently. Punisher, seen in a Battlenet conversation under Ellie, uses his 'egirl smurf' to grief OWL and other top players. pic.twitter.com/K1Tb2PFVLL
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 5, 2019
And by 'social experiment' I mean 'be a conniving asshole'
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 5, 2019
