Two of the best PvP players from World of Warcraft have been banned. Racial statements led to Blizzard having to intervene.
In World of Warcraft, Blizzard has just swung the ban hammer. It has caught two of the most successful PvP players of all time, who had just broken records a few days ago. Due to racist comments, the professional players have now been banned – and this is permanent. They are excluded from official WoW PvP tournaments for “an unlimited time”.
Who are we talking about? The trio consisting of Andreas “Raiku” Meaney, Rene “Swapxy” Pinkera, and Oscar “Whaazz” Wulff were arguably among the best PvP players that World of Warcraft has ever seen. In the arena, they were quite impressive, even setting a record just about a week ago. They were the first 3v3 arena team to achieve a rating of 3655 – a utopian ranking that most players can only dream of.
Why were the two banned? A few days ago, videos surfaced featuring conversations between Raiku and Swapxy. In those videos, racist or dehumanizing remarks or comments were reportedly made. Notably, the “N-word” was said to have been used repeatedly.
The corresponding videos were posted in the WoW PvP subreddit and have since been removed from Twitter and YouTube.
Since the major PvP champions are also role models and had submitted to these rules, Blizzard was forced to act. Both Raiku and Swapxy were subjected to bans. The third player, Whaazz, received no punishment as he was not involved in the incidents.
Even before Blizzard’s ban, the eSports organization XSET Gaming had parted ways with the two players after the allegations arose and the corresponding videos were viewed.
In eSports, such cases occur frequently, where players are excluded due to their behavior. This is not only the case in World of Warcraft, but also in other eSports titles such as Fortnite where a 16-year-old was banned from his clan for misconduct.
