Riot Games has banned streamer Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. for the shooter VALORANT and all of the company’s other games. The wide-reaching Youtuber’s downfall is a clip in which he insults a woman.
Just because “IShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. has over seven million subscribers on Youtube, numerous viewers are interested in what he does. However, the 19-year-old streamer and social media star has been caught in the crossfire of criticism because a month-old clip from a VALORANT chat was reported by scene celebrities.
Well-known Esports journalist Jake Lucky posted the clip via Twitter on Wednesday, in which IShowSpeed streams VALORANT. In a solo cue match, he insults his teammates:inside. Just as a female voice is heard, the Youtube star’s fuses blow.
IShowSpeed: “Is there a bitch talking to me? “
The star Youtuber had just lost a firefight in the game, causing him to get upset and verbally clash with a teammate. However, things got worse. Here’s what IShowSpeed said when he heard the teammate: “What, bitch? Is that a bitch talking to me? Is there a woman talking to me? Get out of the game and do the dishes for your husband!” Because of these sexist statements, an uproar has developed around his person.
I now understand why Valorant queues are so unbelievably toxic. You got one of the most popular streamers on YouTube IShowSpeed saying crap like this and getting nothing but praise and laughs. Crap is whack pic.twitter.com/grEghVotUF
– Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) April 6, 2022
Jake Lucky’s tweet was liked over 30,000 times in one day and also caught the attention of a Riot Games employee. “We don’t want players like this in our community at all. I have permanently banned this player from VALORANT and all Riot Games games,” responded Sara Dadafshar, who is a game producer for Riot Games in VALORANT. This means that IShowSpeed will not be able to play the First Person Shooter or League of Legends, for example.
@JakeSucky @Chen sorry pic.twitter.com/IR0V08qtYx
– Speed⭐️ (@IShowSpeed) April 7, 2022
Due to the Twitter uproar, the streamer spoke out just a few hours later. He apologised for his behaviour towards the insulted woman. “I was completely wrong in that situation,” IShowSpeed said. He had had a bad day, on which he himself was said to have been racially insulted.
IShowSpeed is one of the up-and-coming Youtubers in the USA. It was only in June last year that he cracked the million subscriber mark on Youtube. Less than a year later, his number of followers has increased sevenfold.
