Politics Should Be Left Out Of Esports Claims xQc Following Dota 2 Ban
Often, streamers and gamers can use their ever-growing platforms to advocate political values and beliefs, or even use their growing audiences to put their beliefs to good use through community tournaments for charitable causes. However, other gamers can often find themselves in hot water with their political beliefs, and amid the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, players have recently been on the receiving end of substantial bans.
The most recent political controversy came in the form of Virtus.pro Dota 2 professional Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko, who drew a 'Z' symbol on the in-game minimap against Ukrainian organisation Mind Games - the symbol contains connotations of a pro-Russian Military 'victory' message, often seen on tanks and military uniforms in the current Ukrainian conflict.
After being kicked from the Virtus.pro brand, and subsequently having his team "Outsiders" kicked from the Pro Circuit event, the ramifications of his actions have caught the eye of some of esports' most famous personalities, including Felix "xQc" Lengyel.
xQc says esports should be politics-free
xQc, who is arguably Twitch's biggest personality right now, saw the issue arise whilst on-stream, to which he instantly condemned the action. However, he quickly continued to add an opinion on using esports as a platform for politics, saying that the scene has no space for expressing such opinions.
"Overall, it doesn’t matter what it is, anything political in the middle of a tournament game is just f**king yikes," xQc began. "I don’t give a f**k about what side it’s for or what it is. I don’t care what it is. Politics in video games, why?"
The stance on politics in esports, and mainstream sports, has often been scrutinised, especially during the last two years when social campaigns such as Black Lives Matter have been confused for political campaigns and the Russian/Ukraine conflict has seen organisations become under pressure for their unsupportive actions.
xQc hasn't always veered away from politics in gaming though, possibly adding a pinch of salt to his comments. The streamer was a massive part of the Among Us stream featuring US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ("AOC"), where the indie game was put into the political spotlight, despite politics not being discussed on the broadcast.
The Dota 2 player has also been subsequently banned from competitions in retribution for his actions in-game, which does reiterate that potentially radical political views won't be tolerated in esports.
xQc didn't spend any more time discussing the matter, with his fluffier content taking the forefront amid the poker game hosted by Ludwig "Ludwig" Ahgren.
