Josh “Eqo” Corona, an Israeli Colombian, will be punished for making a gesture that team management for the Philadelphia Fusion deemed “racist”.
HardOCP is reporting that during a stream of Corona playing Overwatch (which was not taking place during broadacst league or tournament play) Corona was told by viewers that he needed to get good like the South Korean players. He responded by saying “I’m Korean”, and stretching out the sides of his eyes while laughing off the joke. The video was removed from Twitch, but a capture of the stream was re-uploaded to Streamable.
Media was quick to jump on the case, prompting the Philadelphia Fusion from the Overwatch League to make a statement, stating that the team president is working on a punishment for Corona.
Many outlets are stating that this is part of a wave of anti-Asian racism popping up, pointing to Yuli Gurriel from the Houston Astros making a similar sign during the 2018 MLB season, and Colombian soccer player Edwin Cardona doing the same thing during a game against a South Korean team.
Typically, many fans of Overwatch are cheering the punishment on, much like Blizzard punishing players for spamming emotes, or using emotes in “racially disparaging” ways.
Various individuals at Left leaning outlets also took the opportunity to virtue signal about how “woke” they are regarding race relations.
— Tristan Cooper (@TristanACooper) April 2, 2018
This follows shortly on the media castigating Counter-Strike: Global Offensive commentator, Matthew Trivett for using some trash talk during a stream. The media then turned the topic into typical virtue signaling about racism.
It’s hard to spot any actual Asians, specifically Koreans, who are offended by Corona’s joke, but plenty of Liberals on the Regressive Left have been championing for Corona’s punishment.
E-sports has basically turned into a scenario where professional players cannot joke, have fun, or be themselves, even outside of tournament play. It will be interesting to see if players continue to put up with such authoritarian measures or if they will eventually seek to pursue their e-sports career outside of the Overwatch League.
