Josh “Eqo” Corona of the Philadelphia Fusion is in hot water with his team and maybe the Overwatch League after making a slant-eye gesture about Korean players during an Overwatch stream last weekend.
Photo: Robert Paul (Blizzard Esports)
After someone compared his skill to a Korean player’s, Corona (who was born in Colombia and raised in Israel) said “I am Korean” and pulled the outer edges of his eyes back. The Twitch video and clip have since been deleted, but screenshots and a Streamable capture of the moment are still hovering around. The gesture is similar to the one Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel was suspended for making at Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish in the World Series last year.
Fusion president and Comcast CEO’s son Tucker Roberts responded on Twitter to apologise for Corona’s behaviour, and said, “We are working on a punishment now.” The Fusion has multiple Korean players on its roster.
Corona replied to a different Twitter chain, saying, “At the time I wasn’t aware this might offend anyone.”
Obviously I apologise to anyone that got offended this clip got is out of context a bit since I was complimenting the Koreans before the clip and after the clip and did the gesture more in a form of wanting to express myself being like them since I admire them not making fun ..
Eqo made an explosive debut in stage two, bolstering an already surging Fusion lineup and adding to the team’s stable of solid DPS players.
The OWL’s code of conduct gives it incredibly broad and vague powers to punish players for this type of behaviour; Eqo’s consequences could range from a small fine to a multiple-game suspension.
We reached out to the Overwatch League and Philadelphia Fusion to get more details on any coming punishment, but had not received them by the time of writing.
Comments
10 responses to “Overwatch League’s Eqo Faces Punishment After Making Slant-Eye Gesture On Stream”
Wow people still do that gesture, I thought that died out decades ago. Or was it I wished that all the people who used to do that, died from old age by now.
How can people who are skilled enough to professional gamers still be so, so dumb? “Oh I didn’t know that mocking an entire race live, on camera, would OFFEND people!” It seems more likely that he was completely aware that he was insulting Koreans, he just didn’t expect to get in trouble and now he’s making any excuse necessary to minimise the impact of his own shitty behaviour.
Being good at a videogame doesn’t make one a mensa candidate.
Agreed, but it should make them smart enough to understand simple logic like “people can see you when you’re on camera” and “there are consequences if you break a code of conduct”.
You don’t get good at games by socialising.
it’s almost like he’s from a completely different culture, not the racially charged american one, maybe he was making a literal physical observation
Shit. You’re right. Racism has never had anything to do with physical observations!
Or maybe they feel that people would have thicker skin and wouldn’t care what some online nobody did. He made fun of you? Beat him the next time you play.
No one has balls anymore. Just cry to mama corporation and make the bad man go away.
Being racist or just cruel in general is the stupid and lazy option of human behaviour. I don’t buy the idea that it “takes balls” to NOT be thoughtful and kind for a single second.
If your offended my this gesture I humbly suggest your are the one with the problem.
look at this guy. so you condone this behaviour?
hope you never have kids mate.