Two Overwatch League players were fined $1000 apiece this past weekend for “inappropriate chat during a league match” after mistakenly believing their respective chats could not be seen.
On April 4th, the ninth week of the Overwatch League kicked off with online matches between the Los Angeles Valiant and the San Francisco Shock:
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At one point during the competition, Valiant member Jung-won ‘Lastro’ Mun took to the match chat and randomly sent the words “sex” and “big dick” to his fellow players. Lastro was quickly informed by Shock player Matthew ‘Super’ DeLisi that the chat was publicly visible.
Following his opponent’s lead, another Shock player, Dong-jun ‘Rascal’ Kim, joined in on the casual grade-school humor by posting “big dick” alongside a Korean emoticon picture of a penis:
LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/sOmgY4Y1vJ
— PHΛЯΛӨH (@PharaohOW) April 5, 2020
In an April 5th update to the Overwatch League Player Discipline Tracker, both Lastro and Rascal were “fined USD $1,000 for inappropriate chat during a league match.”
Following the match, Lastro apologized on his personal Twitter account, explaining that he “thought the viewers could not see the match chat because everyone was typing in it” and wrote the comments “as a joke.”
I thought the viewers could not see the match chat because everyone was typing in it. I wrote it as a joke, although I should not have done it regardless of whether the viewers could see the match chat or not. I will make sure something like this never happens again.
— Lastro (@Lastro_OW) April 5, 2020
He added, “I apologize to all the fans and OWL viewers.”
I apologize to all the fans and OWL viewers
— Lastro (@Lastro_OW) April 5, 2020
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In response to a Tweet by Valiant player Caleb ‘McGravy’ McGarvey exclaiming “FREE MY MANS,” Rascal responded with an animated GIF of an exasperated Conan O’Brien placing his head in his heads:
— Rascal(동준) (@Rascal) April 5, 2020