YouTube Streamer IShowSpeed Permabanned By Riot Games Across Multiple Games
Streamer issues apology after backlash
Riot Games and Valorant developers (devs) have announced loud and clear that they do not condone disrespectful and toxic behavior of the community. A clip of YouTube streamer Darren “IShowSpeed” Watkin raging and yelling at his teammates has been doing the rounds on social media, after Jake Lucky, esports personality and co-owner of Full Squad Gaming, posted it on his Twitter handle. Following this, the devs took it upon themselves to penalize the toxic behavior of the YouTube streamer in question.
In the 1-minute clip, IShowSpeed also makes sexist remarks about his female teammate. Currently, the tweet has 72.6K likes and 11K retweets. Following the backlash, IShowSpeed has issued an apology and further explained the situation.
Video clip in question
Jake Lucky tweeted the video clip showcasing IShowSpeed’s toxicity and wrote, “I now understand why Valorant queues are so unbelievably toxic. You got one of the most popular streamers on YouTube IShowSpeed saying c*** like this and getting nothing but praise and laughs.”
IShowSpeed can be heard saying, “What b*tch? Is a b*tch talking to me? Is a female talking to me? get off the f***** game and do your husband’s dishes," to the female player on his team. Lucky pointed out that content like this could be very misleading to the younger audience that look up to it.
Riot devs take action
Valorant game producer Sara Dadafshar commented on Lucky’s tweet and stated that Riot does not need players like IShowSpeed in the community. She wrote, “I went ahead and permabanned this player from VALORANT, as well as all other Riot Games. Thanks for raising this. Please keep raising stuff like this and reporting so we can make VAL safer.”
Senior competitive designer Jon “EvrMoar” Walker asked the players to record games and collect evidence in such cases. He said, “I always try to escalate issues that I see. Sometimes it takes time, I have to do my normal tasks during the day, but I set aside time to escalate issues to player support when I can. (you can also open a player support ticket!)”
Meanwhile, another clip of players being racist towards IShowSpeed surfaced. Addressing this, Dadafshar assured the community that Riot was looking for those players to ban them as well.
While almost everybody recognized that IShowSpeed was being disrespectful and sexist, people also called out others who go unpunished by the system. Commenting on this, Dadafshar pointed out that voice moderation was hard and that they have to consider multiple languages and accents. She added that Riot is heavily reliant on reports to take action against players until there is a proper technology in place.
IShowSpeed issues apology
Following the ban, streamer IShowSpeed released an apology taking full responsibility for his actions. He further explained that he was “not having a good day” and that he was getting a lot of “racist” messages and donations on his stream. He also added that the clip was from months ago and that he has since changed. “I don’t want to make excuses and I am not trying to justify it. I am just saying that I don’t bash people for no reason. I was completely wrong in that situation,” IShowSpeed stated.
Jake Lucky’s video clip on the state of Valorant queues, voice comms, and toxicity triggered a series of debates in the community. Earlier in February, Twitch streamer Jason "JasonR" Ruchelski was accused of avoiding female players in his Valorant lobbies. Ruchelski avoided playing with women by faking technical difficulties and was called out by multiple streamers and pros.