The 32-year-old Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff is the biggest Twitch streamer for Call of Duty: Warzone. Since May 31, he has had his own skin in the game. However, that didn’t last long. Activision Blizzard is now removing the skin after a critical tweet.
Who is that?
- Nickmercs had his breakthrough on Twitch in 2018, alongside Ninja and Fortnite. At that time, his average viewership jumped from nearly 3,000 to over 17,000.
- While Ninja lost popularity, Nickmercs became one of the hottest shooter streamers on Twitch in recent years, among others with Apex Legends and Call of Duty.
- In the last 30 days, he was by far the biggest streamer for Call of Duty: Warzone on Twitch. With 1.9 million watched hours and an average of 14,500 viewers, he ranked first. Other well-known CoD streamers like TimTheTatman and DrDisrespect are now on YouTube.
These are the skins he received now: Nickmercs and TimTheTatman received their own skin bundles in Call of Duty MW 2 and Warzone 2 at the end of May for Season 3 Reloaded.
The bundle from Nickmercs was released on May 31 and included an operator skin, 2 weapon blueprints, a charm, and a sticker.
The 2,400 Call of Duty points you have to pay for it cost €20.
This controversy is now about Nickmercs: The United States of America are politically deeply divided, especially since the era of Donald Trump. In the USA, there is a constant debate between the LGBTQ community and its opponents, which we can hardly comprehend in this intensity in Germany.
The Call of Duty broadcaster, Chris Puckett, posted a video on Twitter on June 7 showing opponents of the LGBTQ community attacking demonstrators. The demonstration apparently revolved around whether a school acknowledges June as “Pride Month.”
Nickmercs wrote:
“They should leave little children alone. That is the real problem.”
Short Twitter statement triggers massive reactions
Why is the statement problematic? Nickmercs’ relatively vague statement seemed to many as if he was implying that transgender people or homosexuals are somehow pedophilic or want to “indoctrinate” little children, something along those lines.
In any case, it was clearly interpreted as a transphobic statement. Because the connection of LGBTQ+ to “little children” is something that is emotionally charged.
Thus, the Harry Potter author “J.K. Rowling” advocates the thesis that underage girls mistakenly identify as transgender because they want to move out of the role of women and prefer to be boys, as they allegedly have it easier in society. Rowling has been heavily criticized for this view.
This was the reaction to the statement: Nickmercs’ tweet was viewed 11.4 million times.
Individuals from the Call of Duty and esports community subsequently distanced themselves from Nickmercs.
Loopy, coach of Vexed Gaming, wrote:
“I will never watch one of your events again or work there. I cannot in good conscience work for a hypocrite. I am a Marine and I have sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution that protects the demonstrations and demands equal rights for all.
“Love and peace” for everyone, except if you are gay or transgender? What a loser!”
Activision Blizzard removes skin bundle from the shop
This is how Activision Blizzard responds: The official Call of Duty account said today, June 9, that they have removed the “NICKMERCS” operator bundle from the Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone store. This was due to “recent events” and new developments.
Activision Blizzard emphasizes that they celebrate Pride Month with their employees and the community.
This move by Activision Blizzard, in turn, prompted many supporters of Nickmercs who demanded that Activision Blizzard should deal with “their own problems.” Nickmercs said nothing wrong.
Some announced that they would never buy anything from Call of Duty again.
Nickmercs does not apologize, meant the statement differently
What does Nickmercs say about it? He seems to find his tweet unproblematic. He did not mean to upset anyone.
He recently became a father, and therefore his perspective has changed. Teachers or a school should not “talk about these things.” He wanted to express with his tweet that he and his wife want to discuss “these things” with their children, no one else.
He does not find the tweet wrong and does not want to apologize for it. Only to the broadcaster Chris Puckett does he apologize afterward; after his reaction, he seems to have taken quite a hit. Nickmercs did not want that.
The lost son wins the first match in CoD Warzone 2.0 – And the war for viewers on Twitch
What’s behind it: Nickmercs’ tweet “They should leave the little children alone” is so vague that one can read anything into it, especially in the heated atmosphere in the USA.
If Nickmercs had written, “The school should not trouble little children with the topic. I want my children to explain this as a father,” it would have certainly been controversial, but certainly not in such a manner.
Activision Blizzard had to remove another skin based on a real person from the store. They had already done this with an Overwatch pro before.
After the “Sinatraa” incident: Blizzard removes special honor for best player in Overwatch
