CINCINNATI, OHIO: Twitch streamer IShowSpeed, aka Darren Watkins Jr, had courted controversies several times and one of the most provocative ones was when he made misogynistic and sexist remarks towards a female teammate during a Volarant game in 2022.
This incident was brought to light by Jake Lucky, an E-sports reporter, who recorded and shared a portion of the offensive remarks on his official Twitter account in April 2022. The clip rapidly gained traction, sparking widespread discussion on numerous social media platforms.
How did the controversy come to light?
Jake Lucky shared the offensive part of Speed’s video on his Twitter account. In the 2022 video, Speed exclaims, "What b***h? Is a b***h talking to me? Is a female talking to me? Get off the f**king game and do your husband's dishes b***h!"
Lucky posted, “I now understand why Valorant queues are so unbelievably toxic. You got one of the most popular streamers on YouTube IShowSpeed saying crap like this and getting nothing but praise and laughs. Crap is whack.”
The post grabbed the attention of the Senior Game Producer of Epic Games, Sara Dadafshar, and she responded to the video clip the next day by saying, “This is a huge yikes and we do NOT want players like this in our community at all. I went ahead and perma banned 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.”
Did IShowSpeed apologize?
On April 7, 2022, IShowSpeed apologized to his community and posted a video on Twitter. He said, "I wasn’t having a good day, you know? I was getting a lot of racist text-to-speech, donations, a lot of people talking about my dead aunt that’s in the grave right now... I don’t want to make that no excuse, I’m wrong. Know what I’m saying? I’m not trying to justify. I don’t just bash on people for no reason, that’s where I’m coming from that."
He also apologized to the female teammate, "I’m not trying to justify it. I’m completely wrong in that situation right there. I’m young. Every situation I grow and I change. That is not me no more. I apologize to that girl — if that girl wants to hit me up and say anything, I’d love to hear her out."
What did fans say?
Fans came forward to support IShowSpeed after his apology. One Twitter user said, “Everyone make mistakes, and you apologized for it and grown past it which is all that matters. Keep dominating!” Another said, “I personally just don’t understand why someone who’s a minority in an industry would treat someone the way they’re upset about being treated. I just genuinely hope you learn the effect your words have on people.” Yet another user said, “It really wasn’t that deep bro it was a joke”.
This article contains remarks made on the internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.
