As the opening day of the Overwatch League season four approaches, Korean players on North American teams are grappling with the skyrocketing rise in anti-Asian racism. On April 5, Eui-Seok “Fearless” Lee, the main tank for the Dallas Fuel, spoke about his experience being Korean and living in the United States on his Twitch channel.
“Being Asian here is scary, seriously,” he said.
Lee told a story of people deliberately coughing about him and his teammates and warned other Koreans living in the United States because “racism is not a joke.” Here’s the full clip translated into English by Florida Mayhem team manager Jade “swingchip” Kim.
Lee’s clip comes as hate crimes against Asian Americans reach unprecedented frequency. Across the country, Asians report being verbally and physically assaulted; the increase in violence included a gunman in Atlanta who killed eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent. The attacks are attributed in part to racist rhetoric espoused by former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly blamed China for the Covid-19 pandemic.
G / O Media can get a commission
Lee’s two-minute clip sparked a wave of Overwatch League fans and professionals who voiced their support for the player and shared the tweet with the hashtag #stopasianhate. The next day, April 6, Mike “hastr0” Rufail, the co-founder of Team Envy, which is the parent organization of Dallas Fuel, posted his own short video on Twitter condemning racism.
“We are doing everything possible to make our players feel comfortable,” he said.
With the covid-19 pandemic disrupting international travel and Blizzard’s plans to host live games, teams with predominantly Asian players and staff, such as the Shanghai Dragons, the Seoul Dynasty and the New York Excelsior, competed online. from China or Korea. However, a good number of North American teams have players who are from Asian countries and who must reside in the United States to compete in the 2021 season. Kotaku reached out to these teams to comment on whether their players have had experiences similar to Lee’s. and to ask how teams are protecting both staff and players in light of these events.
“There have been isolated incidents in the past that we have dealt with, but nothing recent that I know of,” Albert Yeh, general manager of Florida Mayhem, told Kotaku about Discord. Yeh said the Covid precautions mean that players generally only spend time in their apartments or practice facilities, isolating them from most potential incidents.
“In a way, the pandemic protocols have been the ‘protection’ for us,” Yeh said.
Chris Loranger, president of games for Boston Uprising, said none of his players have experienced racist incidents living in the United States thus far, and they have been instructed to let management know if something happens.
Washington Justice and Atlanta Reign expressed similar sentiments. An Atlanta Reign spokesperson wrote in an email: “No issues have been raised, but we have encouraged staff and team members to raise any and all concerns, and we will support them to the best of our ability.”
For its part, the Overwatch League has not issued any official statement on the rise in anti-Asian attacks, but told Kotaku in an email: “At Activision Blizzard, we condemn racism in the strongest possible terms. We support the Asian community, our employees and our players and we are working across our organization, including esports, to do our part to combat hatred and ignorance. “
Statements are great, but they can only go so far. We hope that Asian players and staff feel that they can take their organizations at their words and turn to them for any help they may need. Since the League began in 2018, there have been discussions about whether North American teams take the concerns of their Korean players seriously. In 2020, the Vancouver Titans came under fire after abruptly releasing their full roster of Korean players, all of them seasoned champions, amid rumors of team mismanagement.
So what can teams do to protect their players and staff? Let them unionize to get started. As for what organizations can do to help in this climate of increasing anti-Asian violence, Mike Rufail of Team Envy shared some practical steps his organization has taken. In a statement to Vice, Rufail said that Team Envy employs a mental health coach to help the players and that they are working “to increase safety measures for the players,” but declined to elaborate on what those might be. security measures. In any case, I hope other teams take the threat of racism-driven violence against their players seriously enough to take precautions themselves.
–
