Racism and transphobia cases in eSports mark Brazil’s June

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The month of June was marked by several cases of streamers and players banned for racism and transphobia. Hernan “hastad”, Pedro “Buxexa”, Welington “Racha” and Corinthians’ Danilo Avelar were punished by organizations, streaming platforms and sponsors, due to offensive comments in live streams and online games.

It should be noted that both racial insult and transphobia violate not only the games’ codes of conduct, but also the Brazilian Criminal Code. In such cases, the reporting tools should be used both within and outside the games.

Hernan “hastad” was banned on June 17, when user @caiquelps posted a video on Twitter in which Hastad used the word “nigger” to offend a teammate during a Valorant match. At the time, the player engaged in racism during a Twitch live stream.

The video quickly went viral on social networks and soon reached famous eSports names, such as Rafael “Rakin,” who banned Hastad and the organization he was part of – Slick – from the upcoming Rakin Cup edition.

Hastad has also lost his contracts with sponsors such as ExitLag and Redragon. Slick suspended the player “from any involvement with the organization for an indefinite period of time.” In addition, the team offered the streamer professional psychological support.

Although Twitch has not made a public statement, it banned Hastad from the platform on June 18. To date, the streamer’s channel has been disabled. He had been suspended twice before for other infractions, but recovered his account after 7 days in both cases.

Buxexa and Racha made transphobic comments in a Free Fire live stream

Free Fire streamer Pedro “Buxexa” committed transphobia during a live stream on June 19. At the time, the player referred to influencer Marcella Pantaleão as a “three-legged woman” and said that she “was a man.”

In a video posted on Twitter by the account @babblerfreefire, Buxexa and Welington “Racha” are shown making transphobic comments while mocking Bruno “Nobru” for liking a photo of Marcella, who is transsexual.

On social networks, both Buxexa and Racha posted their apologies. On the other hand, Marcella posted a video in which, crying, she said she would seek justice in court. Meanwhile, Nobru also cried on video, but for a different reason: he shouldered the blame for Buxexa and Racha’s transphobic comments.

“This is all my fault. I can’t even speak, I know what they [Buxexa and Racha] did was wrong, but I really like them. They are good-hearted people,” Nobru commented.

Soon after the video was released, Fluxo announced that they had cancelled Buxexa’s contract with the Free Fire team. Garena also took a position by banning Buxexa and Racha from BOOYAH! streaming platform and from the company’s influencer program.

Danilo Avelar committed racism in CS:GO

The most recent case involved former Corinthians soccer player Danilo Avelar. On June 22, the athlete was playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and called another person in the match “son of black girl.”

On Twitter, user @obdfps posted a printout of the game chat with Avelar’s comment, who used the nickname “D.A35” in the game. Later, the athlete accepted responsibility for the racist remark and apologized for the incident. He also claimed that he had offended the other player for allegedly being the target of xenophobic comments earlier.

Avelar’s racist behavior resulted in his ban from the matchmaking platform Coliseum.gg. In a statement, the website said it “vehemently repudiates this type of thinking and behavior.” In addition, Corinthians decided to terminate Avelar’s contract with the club.

Source: Tecnoblog