SC2 Pro disqualified for tweeting that he's going to rape competition.

[Santti]

I'm going to be honest here, I think she used that tweet to disqualify him. She's a gamer, and has no doubt heard these words uttered to multiple people before. Some context should be applied here. Nobody is going to rape anyone. He obviously meant that he was going to defeat her in the game. But then again, such words don't really belong in the professional scene. These matches can even be seen in television in some countries. They compete for big money and fame.

I think a slap on the wrist and an apology would have been appropriate.

[Coombs]

Professional scene? Really? These kids don't take classes in fucking etiquette and they don't go to a professional school. They sit at home and talk shit online and then get really fucking good at a game to the point where someone wants to pay them to compete. The whole e-sport organization is to blame for this fucking ridiculous idea that these people are professionals at anything. The chick is also full of shit and playing the victim card to the utmost effect.

[Jeina]

I think the fact that people are accepting threats of murder and rape as "trash talk" and "just part of the game" signifies just how horrible the gamer community has become.

The fact that we tolerate and accept this behavior signifies how horrible the gamer community has become.

If people aren't punished for this completely unacceptable behavior, they'll never learn. Act like an immature 11 year old and you get treated like an immature 11 year old.

[Barnabas]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/pro.../1100-6423795/

Hungarian professional gamer Mihaylo "Kas" Hayda was recently booted from a StarCraft II tournament after he tweeted that he was going to "rape" his female challenger during an upcoming qualifying match. The tweet has been deleted, but not before it was captured and posted in a Deadspin report.

The tweet said: "Going to rape some girl soon. #fragbitemasters". Hayda was referring to his upcoming Fragbite Masters Season 3 tournament qualifying match against opponent Madeleine Leander. She wrote about the "scary" message in a post on E-Sport.



I'm not sure how to feel about this. While such a comment is obviously wrong, how is it any worse than saying '' I'll murder/kill/wreck the competition '' ?

Obviously the SJWs are triggered by the ''R word'' these days, but if you go and say rape isn't a joke then you might as well also say that murder and violence isn't and that's opening a big cap of worms.

It reached a point where rape and nigger are worse offences than saying you're going to kill someone, even if it's a joke.

I also wonder what the verdict would've been had the opponent been a male. Note the comment was done on Twitter ( which should not impact what happens at the tourney, but whatever ).

Oh and I also think she made a way too big fuss over it, considering as a gamer you see such comments all day. She admitted to being worse than him and many say she took the chance to disqualify someone that was a threat and used it.

Which is pretty much cancer.

Kas apologized to everyone afterwards. You should at least include that in your OP before passing judgement on someone. He learned his lesson from it.

[Gallahadd]

Myeh, she saw a chance to take out an opponant she probably couldn't beat and took it. Can't say I blame her, I'd have... Shit I HAVE done the same in the past.

As for the guy... He's everything that is wrong with modern gamers and I hope he not only get's kicked from this tournament, but future ones.

[Xar226]

I have no doubt he just meant it in the sense that gamers do, ie "I just got raped by that boss"

I tend to agree. For some reason it was "some girl" that bothered me more. It struck me like he's dismissive of his competition because she's female.

That said, the whole thing is an overreaction including the comments from his to-be competition that it was "scary." Come on now. You're obviously involved in gamer culture. That shit gets said every single day, whether it should be said or not. Are you in perpetual fear or something?

[Tucci]

Lol poor choice of words.

[zolok2.0]

He was only disqualified for PR reasons. Everyone likes to pretend they're extremely stupid and naive and pretend that everyone means everything literally. It's a figure of speech. Same thing as saying "that's so gay". It's extremely obvious he didn't mean it literally, but meant it in the gamer-sense of the term.

It's a real shame everyone today is such a pussy.

[Xar226]

(Bah, forget it. Post removed.)

[Edge-]

He was only disqualified for PR reasons. Everyone likes to pretend they're extremely stupid and naive and pretend that everyone means everything literally. It's a figure of speech. Same thing as saying "that's so gay". It's extremely obvious he didn't mean it literally, but meant it in the gamer-sense of the term.

It's a real shame everyone today is such a pussy.

It's like tweeting out, "Going to lynch some black dude soon. #fragbitemasters". Yes, he doesn't mean it literally, but it's also monumentally stupid beyond reason. It's the type of behavior that should be dealt with.

Trash talk is fine, but there's such a thing as trash talk that crosses the line.

[cFortyfive]

The specific way in which he worded the statement is why I think the disqualification was justified.

About 95% of western players related to any esport have made similar statements in the past outside the privacy of their friends or whatever.

[zealo]

http://esport.aftonbladet.se/team/ma...ragbitemasters

If anyone cares the girl on the other side of this thing commented on it here, use google translate if not grasping the language. I agree with the general sentiment there, this kind of thing has no place at a pro level tournament even if I am aware of the use of these terms gamers have.

[Tyrion Moonblade]

The demise of the concept of free speech at the hands of neurotic, bitchy hypocrites continues.

Well-off, privileged, attention seeking white girls thinking that because they are offended at something it gives them special rights, bullying the rest of the world into capitulation with vicious attacks, intellectual terror tactics, and the sheer shrill annoyance of their presence.

Backlash will come, eventually, and the idiots in the religious, political right will eventually gain enough of the center to fuck up a good deal of the progress made by REAL liberals and REAL feminists because of these sexist little crybabies crying patriarchy every five minutes and making it so the word "feminist" was top of the time magazine words to ban poll by tens of thousands until they were browbeaten into removing it.

[Edge-]

The demise of the concept of free speech at the hands of neurotic, bitchy hypocrites continues.

Free speech has consequences sometimes. You are free to say what you want, but you may see a negative consequence for things you may say.

Nobody censored him, he freely expressed himself. And the organization freely used their power to ban him from a tournament for behavior which they do not want associated with the tournament or their organization.

Don't see the issue.

[noahjam326]

About 95% of western players related to any esport have made similar statements in the past outside the privacy of their friends or whatever.

I would really love to see evidence of a tweet saying "Going to go rape some man soon" and not just a generic "Awww yeah! I just raped that guy!" while in the middle of a match. Context is very important.

[Holtzmann]

It's like tweeting out, "Going to lynch some black dude soon. #fragbitemasters". Yes, he doesn't mean it literally, but it's also monumentally stupid beyond reason. It's the type of behavior that should be dealt with.

Trash talk is fine, but there's such a thing as trash talk that crosses the line.

"Dealt with" seems to be the keyword here. Why not reprehend the player, sternly demand an apology and a retraction, and only disqualify him if he either refuses or repeats the offense?

Assuming he is not a repeat offender in the same place (in which case the disqualification would have been entirely warranted, IMO), I'm really not a fan of "zero tolerance" rules when it comes to offensive speech. as opposed to actions. Where is the line between "I feel threatened/insulted" and "I don't actually feel threatened/insulted but I want to get this guy/girl in trouble because they said they'd 'beat' me and that could be construed a threat of violence"? I'm absolutely not saying this is what happened in this case (there is no way to know either way), but it's a tactic that's very easy to abuse by hypercompetitive people like "professional" gamers.

I put the "professional" bit between quotes because there's not a lot of professional training involved in the profession. Like with most athletes, there's no pre-requisite for taking an ethics or etiquette class before going in, and a lot of them (especially early on) run their mouths off because that's how they talk in a day-to-day basis. Their purpose isn't to be polite or even pleasant people (although those are very desirable characteristics), it's to win games. As stupid as his statement was context indicates he never intended on carrying out the "threat". Maybe they should be mandated to go through some sort of sensitivity course before entering the big leagues?

Maybe "professional" gamers should be forbidden to say anything and leave it all for their PR minders/lawyers. I'm sure that would make things a lot calmer, even if the in-game banter would get even more boring than it is right now. :P

[Edge-]

"Dealt with" seems to be the keyword here. Why not reprehend the player, sternly demand an apology and a retraction, and only disqualify him if he either refuses or repeats the offense?

Because that's hardly a punishment for very undesirable behavior. They need to send a message that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, and punishing players is one of their only tools to do so.

[Skorpionss]

Starcraft pretends to be a sport, what he did is unsportsmanlike, so he got booted from the competition... I see nothing wrong or shocking about it at all. It maters not if there was any intent in his threat or if he even meant it in the figurative or practical way... It's flaming and flaming is not allowed in most sports.

[ongal]

Maybe professional gamers with twitters shouldn't be such immature children and say things like that in the first place.

To think words could have multiple meanings :O

The reactions to this are more immature than the word, by far.

[Holtzmann]

Because that's hardly a punishment for very undesirable behavior. They need to send a message that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, and punishing players is one of their only tools to do so.

Again, why go straight for the disqualification?

Again, don't take me wrong: the guy was a colossal idiot. But even a big mistake made out of ignorance instead of malice or incompetence deserves a second chance for education. As it is, disqualifying him outright just makes quite a few people (as visible in this thread) think the female player abused the system to get her competition kicked out (and again, I state there is no way to know).

Chastise the guy publicly, have him apologize and retract his statement and have the match as scheduled. And if the other player feels threatened enough not to have the match and retreats from the tournament on her own accord, then disqualify him instead of giving him a victory by WO because in this case his crass statement also resulted in the tournament losing a qualified player (so the second chance can't be used to game the system either).

And (yet again) if it wasn't his first offense, ignore what I said and boot him outright because he would have already been warned in that situation.

"Zero tolerance" is usually a poor idea because it makes it so very easy to take action without considering the context involved in a problem. Even more so when it's a culturally-sensitive topic. As an extreme anecdote, a few years ago I've watched an amateur table tennis player in a tourney held at my university get disqualified from because the other player accused her of giving her the finger. The player in question wore glasses and adjusted them by pushing them up her nose with her middle finger (I do the same thing, actually), but it was still considered an "insult" by the organization and she was kicked out of the tournament because of zero tolerance rules.


EDIT: on that note, I understand we probably have different opinions to begin with so I'd rather just agree to disagree instead of having this go on and on. Also, I really need to get some sleep. G'night, all.