Riot bans YouTuber IShowSpeed from all of its games following viral misogynistic outburst
Following a video of him hurling inappropriate slurs at a female colleague, popular YouTube streamer Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkins has been permanently banned from Valorant and other Riot games. Other than that, Twitch banned him in 2021 for making sexist statements on Adin Ross’s stream. So, he’s no stranger to controversy.
What happened to the IShowSpeed case?
The online gaming community has been infamous for its toxicity towards some groups of people. Women and people of color have been constant targets of abuse and one of them is found in VALORANT. Recently, a YouTuber named IShowSpeed came into the spotlight for his malicious behavior earlier and was banned by Riot Games.
In the VALORANT round earlier this month, Speed was the last player standing. After his defeat, he viewed it again, and one person commented on it. Speed begins to classify his comrades and labels him as a newcomer. He also used derogatory language toward his coworkers.
Speed appeared to become furious when a girl defended someone else. Speed is speaking to the woman with a few tough remarks in order to figure out why she is there. It didn’t end there; once she’d had her fill with insults, Speed told the girl to get out of the path. “Get off the fucking game and do your husband’s dishes, b*tch,” he said. Later, he used the same derogatory language against the girl and claimed that he had no idea to whom Speed was speaking to.
Riot responds by banning IShowSpeed
Jake Lucky shared the inappropriate video in a post on Twitter. Quickly, the video went viral. Many gaming communities responded with various comments. Some of them called on Riot to take strong action against Speed.
Regarding the video, VALORANT producer Sara Dadafshar announced that IShowSpeed will be banned from all Riot Games, not just VALORANT. Dadafshar said that what Speed did was a big mistake and did not want such a player in his community. After this incident, Speed will no longer be able to stream Valorant, League of Legends, TFT, Legends of Runeterra, or even Wild Rift due to the ban issued by Riot Games.
Lester Chen as YouTube’s Global Head of Gaming Creators also commented on the viral video. He claims that at the time of the incident, he was in the game. While a review of the footage is underway on YouTube, Speed was still using YouTube to let his fans know that he won’t be able to stream the game again.
Currently, Speed has around seven million followers and is one of the most popular streamers among them. After the inappropriate video went viral, Speed uploaded an apology video via a Twitter post. He said the video had been around since last month, and he had changed for the better since then.
He also revealed that he was annoyed during the match and had been the target of racial slurs. However, the dirty terms used in the video cannot be justified. Until now, many parties are still waiting for YouTube’s decision regarding this issue.
Prior to this incident, Riot had detailed its strategies for reducing in-game toxicity, particularly VALORANT. According to him, he needs to give strict sanctions to violators who throw toxic insults in the game, regardless of the perpetrator’s popularity. That way, things like that won’t happen again.
