VALORANT Devs Promise Voice Chat Protection After IShowSpeed Is Banned For Sexist Comments

Warning: The contents of this article may be distressing for some readers, so discretion is advised.

A VALORANT developer has promised that the team is "working" on voice chat technology to protect players from abusive behaviour. The news comes after YouTuber Darren "IShowSpeed" Watkins was banned for sexist abuse towards a female player.

19-year-old YouTuber IShowSpeed has enjoyed tremendous success in recent times, rising up the platform's charts and reaching 1 million subscribers in just a week. As well as his career as a streamer, he's also released a number of singles and become a star on TikTok. However, Speed has also landed himself in a heap of controversy in the past. For example, in December 2021, he was banned from Twitch for an aggressive sexist outburst in which he threatened to sexually assault a female streamer. 

IShowSpeed has once again found himself in the firing line after he was banned from his Riot Games account following a sexist outburst towards a female teammate during a VALORANT playthrough. However, Twitter users jumped to his defence claiming his reaction was a response to a series of racist comments. 

IShowSpeed Apologises For Sexist Valorant Rant

Speed found himself in hot water after a viral clip of him yelling sexist comments towards a female VALORANT player began to circulate online. In the clip, Speed and his team lose the round, prompting an angry response from the YouTuber. As a female team member voices her concerns, Speed screams: "Is a b***h talking to me? Is a female talking to me? Am I tripping? Get off the f*****g game and do your husband's dishes b***h. Shut up. Stop talking to me like that."

The clip quickly went viral, especially after esports commentator Jake Lucky got involved and shared his horrified response to Speed's comments. In a tweet, Lucky said: "I now understand why VALORANT queues are so unbelievably toxic. You got one of the most popular streamers on YouTube IShowSpeed saying crap like this and getting nothing but praise and laughs. Crap is whack."

IShowSpeed later issued an apology video in which he explained he was "having a bad day," but admitted he was "completely wrong." He further claimed that the clip was from "months ago" and that he has since grown since then. However, Speed stated that he was suffering from racist taunts from trolls in his chat who also made upsetting comments about his recently deceased aunt. 

VALORANT Dev Claims Epic Games Are Working On Voice Chat Protection Tech

Following the clip going viral, Speed was permanently banned from VALORANT as well as any other Riot Games titles. Speaking about the ban, VALORANT developer Sara Dadafshar said: "This is a huge yikes and we do not want players like this in our community at all. I went ahead and perma banned this player from VALORANT, as well as all other Riot Games. Thanks for raising this. Please keep raising stuff like this and reporting so we can make VAL safer."

However, a number of Speed's fans came out in support of the YouTuber providing clips that show Speed has been racially abused while playing the game. Subsequently, they called on Dadafshar to ensure that such racist comments would also be sanctioned. She responded by saying that Riot Games was "working on" voice chat protection technology that would make sure such behaviour isn't repeated. 

While IShowSpeed remains banned from playing all Riot Games titles, Dadafshar claimed the team is also on the hunt to find the Speed's teammates for their offensive comments. This certainly isn't the first time that Riot Games has tried to introduce new technology to protect its players. As well as being quick to issue bans, Riot has introduced voice recording to target toxic VALORANT players. However, it looks like there is still a lot more work to be down to ensure all players are safe from such verbal abuse.