StarCraft 2 Tournament Boots Player for Rape Comment

[The Lunatic]

Yeah, that was a pretty dumb thing to say.

Given how often "Rape" is used in competitive gaming, I do have to wonder how those unfamiliar with the language handle the use of the word.

The whole pushing of "THIS IS WHY WOMEN AREN'T IN ESPORTS" is a bit over the top though.

There's no real evidence of that, and men are just as uneasy about people making rape jokes as women are, so, I can't see how the offence of one gender is somehow pushing them away more than another.

 

[Snotnarok]

I think the trashtalk is just a lame thing to feature in an article, most people playing games against another use trashtalk, some more abrasive than others but I've heard a lot of girls say to others "I'm gonna rape you" in whatever game they're playing, even Go Fish. Or you know the thing EVERYONE says when they get killed in a shooter by a friend "Oh I'm gonna kill you for that!"
Guys and girls trash talk, it's not some gender specific thing. People do it to psych them self up or try and rattle the other player or hell to vent. It's almost reaction to have SOME form of trash talk regardless. Personally? I don't care for it, but I'm not gonna tell someone they can't say it.

It's just more P-C bullshit. The guy in his position as a professional probably deserves a suspension- though how many times has he said this prior about other players? It could just be an expected act/personality he shows in his stream and social media nonsense.

But let's be really honest here, she has NOTHING to worry about, not because of empty trashtalk:

Because this guy couldn't do anything to her, she'd snap him like a twig.
I'm kinda confused why this article isn't featuring an image of her and the person in question.

Honestly I think an article featuring her, a young woman is not only competitive in e-sports but is also an able, active woman. How about we just have an article featuring someone who stands out not only because of her being in the competitive scene but because she's unique! This isn't someone I expected to see when looking her up, I figured average build not, built. It's impressive, it'd be nice to feature her as a strong competitor vs a victim. Getting into the competitive scene is impressive on it's own but she seems to do a lot more than that.

 

[Kyber]

Can someone please link the whole Stephen Fry picture where there's his quote about being offended. I think it'd be fitting.

 

[SecondPrize]

I've seen many examples of people making poor decisions in my time and this is one of them.

 

[EyeReaper]

On one hand, Yes, this guy was an idiot. Even if rape is commonly used in games to mean whatever it means besides rape, Anyone connected to the internet should've known it was a hot button to push, and shouldn't be surprised they got burned for it.

however, I also really don't like how this article seems to state that insults commonly used in online gaming are more offensive and/or sexist just because a man said it to a woman. Sure, It's unprofessional, and was really dumb to say, but sexist? Don't see it. I'm going to play slippery slope for a minute here.

Do you think if he said "I'm going to beat this woman so hard" That then we'd be talking about how "Domestic abuse is never ok?"

What about if he said "I'm gonna go harass this woman" (I don't know if "harassing" is a term in Starcraft, if not, apply it to a LoL player then) then we'd get some sort of "Just like Sarkeesian" spiel?

What I'm trying to say is, this shouldn't be "Man said thing to woman, that's bad." it should be "Person said thing to person, that's unprofessional"

 

[darksuccubus]

I don't like how obviously biased the article is, please git gud, Escapist, I really respect and like you but that just means I will criticize you more and this does look very much like an editorial and not actual neutral news.

Rape jokes can be funny and I think this woman is overreacting (after all, has anyone banned the "don't drop the soap" jokes yet? That's what I thought, when these people say rape jokes are not okay they only mean it when it relates to females).

The last couple of sentences about the lack of women is pro gaming is just absurd. Have you thought that maybe women are less likely to be interested in pro gaming? And not because of some nebulous conspiracy or dislike, if anything, girl player would probably be worshipped in these tournaments.

 

[Phasmal]

With respect I get the impression from the quote that he means rape in the gaming sense "I'm going to kick their ass" rather than the sexual version. I may be wrong but I wonder if this was a case of someone not expecting to have to tip toe around phrases he would normally use on other players just because she's a girl.

Okay. I realise that. It's still dumb.

I'm of the opinion that `trash-talking` is a thing that makes us all look bad and should go away. Though I'm not sure if this counts as trash talking at all because tweeted it in general, rather than saying it to her during the match. Either way, it's stupid.

I had a guy start saying this to me once, when we were competing in a friendly way (seeing who's DPS was better in WoW).
He got half way through saying it and went kinda `Oh, no wait you're a girl that's kind of weird to say that to you`.
My response wasn't `That's right- be ashamed!`, it was `It's a dumb thing to say to anyone when you think about it`.

 

[Ishigami]

So in short: Women loses badly to better male player and gets him disqualified over trash talk.
Grow some balls will you.

 

[veloper]

Fine, I'll be the one to say it.

Trash talk is okay. Rape in the context of competitive gaming means defeat by a huge margin. It's obviously not a threat.

If it were up to me, I'd allow this kind of talk, even against a woman. Freedom of speech to trump over quickly wounded egos.
The consequence of being an asshole should be that people will think and say you're an asshole and that knowledge can only benefit people. Everybody wins and everybody grows a thicker skin as an added bonus.

The only real mistake the guy made is that he should have known he was playing in a nanny environment.

I disagree. Trash talk is not ok, at least not in this environment. If you want to trash talk friends, that's one thing, but this is not a casual situation. Professionalism and sportsmanship should mean something to a professional sport, and this kind of behavior demeans the players and the sport itself. That's especially important in a sport that desperately trying to gain legitimacy outside its own community. And double-standard or not, this is a step in the right direction. Trying to argue that what this guy said is perfectly acceptable because that's "what everybody does" is not.

And free speech has nothing to do with this. The tournament is a private event. If the hosts want to deny this kind of rhetoric, they have every right to.

Sure in the context of the law it has nothing to do with freedom, but in practice it still does, because house rules may still determine what you can or cannot say.
I strongly favor letting people say their piece and NOT babysitting teens and young adults. The first leads to assertiveness while babysitting promotes dependence.

 

[HardkorSB]

Women are less visible in competitive gaming tournaments thanks to sexism, marketing strategies overlooking them, and gender norms that treat games as a male hobby.

Hayda's comment is just one example of how the eSports community pushes women away.

What also pushes women away is this type of articles, always portraying gamers as sexist assholes.
This reminds me of that dumb "I don't care if you landed a spacecraft on a comet..." article on The Verge, where the author presented the scientific community as sexist and essentially anti-women.

You are just as responsible for pushing women away from the community as these asshole gamers are.
A female gamer will read your article and think: "Well, if the eSports community is that sexist, I don't want to be part of it".
Good job.

 

[RicoADF]

Okay. I realise that. It's still dumb.

I'm of the opinion that `trash-talking` is a thing that makes us all look bad and should go away. Though I'm not sure if this counts as trash talking at all because tweeted it in general, rather than saying it to her during the match. Either way, it's stupid.

I had a guy start saying this to me once, when we were competing in a friendly way (seeing who's DPS was better in WoW).
He got half way through saying it and went kinda `Oh, no wait you're a girl that's kind of weird to say that to you`.
My response wasn't `That's right- be ashamed!`, it was `It's a dumb thing to say to anyone when you think about it`.

I agree it's a dumb thing to say, not something that I personally would be saying to other players. That said people do say it as jokes and banter in friendly manner and I don't believe in controlling what others say.

As I said I'm wondering if he was booted because it was a girl or because of what he said. If the former then I consider that wrong, you can't have 2 sets of rules (ok to say it to guys but not girls). If it's the latter and they were informed as to their code of conduct then yes the guy is an idiot and was correctly kicked for breaching the rules.

Basically it comes down to "I need more information" to comment and/or make an opinion.

 

[Evonisia]

All this news tells me is that I have a desire to see a new word arise to replace "rape" as a synonym for "defeat" in the gaming community. Let's get "thrash" to be an insult, it would be somewhat cool. "Rape" is a silly word, after all, and is almost always going to get you (rightfully) shit on.

 

[Scorpid]

Good on them for disqualifying him. There are few enough female professional female gamers and they don't need threats of rape, joking or not to be laid against them. I know "rape" is common nomenclature for overwhelming victory in games but it still shouldn't be because of how sadly prevalent rape is in the world today is and sexist the connotation itself is. The dude should think of better ways of trash talking without implying she should fear for her real life safety in such a direct way.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

well it was certainly tasteless

It wasn't Tasteless! Why are so many people bringing him into this discussion? He did nothing wrong.
He's also one of my favorite casters. <3

Oh, come on, Starcraft fans... You had one job, ONE JOB! 'Do not make rape comments', and you blew it!

Hang your heads in shame.

I really love that way of thinking. One person does something idiotic and gets punished for it by professional organization plus the community: BLAME ALL PEOPLE WHO ENJOY THE SAME THING AS HE DOES ANYWAY!

ok im not familiar with the -esports scene or anything, but i was under the impression athletes had to be more... professional, that being said maybe im using the term athlete here very loosely

 

[Headsprouter]

What a classless moron. It actually makes me feel like a moron to call him classless, but I'm not sure how else I can describe it...just really low brow and obviously didn't think very much about making that tweet. I mean, you and your friends might laugh at that joke, but your twitter followers aren't your close friends. They're an audience.

 

[Riot3000]

So guy made a unprofessional comment got canned like he should nothing wrong with some things in a pick up basketball will not fly in the NBA so that professional environment makes a difference.

Now for the "reason why women don't go into competitive sports" is the most sexist thing about this more so than the "rape" comment. I mean can no one not smell or sense the benevolent sexism there that it hurts. That is why a lot of these kind of articles and tones have been rubbing me the wrong way. I mean I thought gaming was run by dirty liberals and this and other stuff sounds like sneaky Trad Con rhetoric.

With that said I am pretty as long the rules are consistent then really there is no need for an uproar.

 

[thewatergamer]

Framing this as "Just another way the eSports community pushes women away" is stupid editorializing. His behavior was unprofessional and caddish, but making a bigger deal out of it because it was in reference to a woman is simply another form of sexism.

^ I'm not denying what the guy said was a terrible thing to say, he's an asshole and deserved what came to him quite frankly, HOWEVER I am sick of this narrative of "This is yet another example of how E-sports push women away"

Maybe the reason women don't tend to show up in E-sports is because none of them are that interested to begin with? Too my knowledge they have tried to have an all women tournament but it didn't happen because not enough female players actually wanted to participate...

Can we stop with this obvious bias please? I get it this was a stupid and terrible thing to say and absolutely he deserved what he got but painting the entire e-sports community/event and claiming "yet another way that the e-sports community pushes women away" is an incredible generalization...

If this was gender flipped nobody would be talking about it and it CERTAINLY wouldn't have an article on the escapist...