- Prominent OWL player Jeong-ho “MCD” Lee has beensuspended from Hangzhou Spark in the wake of an alleged racial slur
- The player was recorded on stream cursing at a fellow player on racial grounds
- Racism has not been prevalent in the Overwatch League, but some incidents have been reported in the past
Hangzhou Spark has immediately dropped flex-support player Jeong-ho “MCD” Lee following a report of racial slurs against players.
Hangzhou Spark Drops MCD from Roster Pointblank
Imagine you are a top-tier Overwatch League team. Now imagine one of your players was just caught harassing another player in-game. That is precisely what happened to Hangzhou Spark with the unsportsmanlike behavior resulting in an immediate suspension of contract for Jeong-ho “MCD” Lee.
MCD's contract was terminated in the wake of the Korean player's comment to a fellow player. Stream footage has the player allegedly saying “f**king Chinese,” to a fellow player who some suspect is Team Chaser's Zhou “XRAY” Xiyan.
His comment is bizarre given that MCD has been playing with a Chinese team and all his teammates are Chinese, leaving many fans perplexed at the news. The team, though, did not take the time to ponder on what MCD's motivation was:
“Today, the Hangzhou Spark was made aware of an incident involving MCD’s in-game behavior. MCD’s action and comments have broken the stipulation of the player contract. It is also against the Hangzhou Spark’s team value.”
MCD's dropped out of his roster is a big blow to his career as public dismissals over a sensitive issue tend not to sit well with other reputable franchises. If anything, Chinese players have been rightly miffed at the mounting tally of racial slurs directed at them across numerous games, including Dota 2 and League of Legends. The case is reminiscent of that of Matt “Dellor” Vaughn back in 2017 who decided to quit the game after he went on a 30-second racial rant.
Meanwhile, Spark will most likely replace MCD with Tong “ColdEst” Xiaodong. Racism in Overwatch is a rare occurrence, though. The last reported incident of a similar nature involved San Francisco Shock's Park “Viol2t” Min-ki who used racial slurs during a Twitch stream.
Earlier this year, Polygon interviewed Dallas Fuel player Lee “Fearless” Eui-seok who spoke about mounting racism against Asians in Dallas.
