Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel, a popular Overwatch Twitch streamer who once played for Dallas Fuel, received a 15 day in-game suspension over the weekend. This development comes just a month ahead of the Overwatch World Cup where he was set to play for Team Canada. Now, much of the gaming community has their eyes set to see how Blizzard will handle his suspension and whether or not they choose to allow him to play in the upcoming tournament.
Lengyel’s bad behavior has become somewhat infamous in the Overwatch community. During his career with the Dallas Fuel, he was suspended twice causing him to miss practices and competitive matches. The first suspension came from making homophobic insults
His recent antics have caused him to be suspended yet again. Here’s the moment on stream where he receives the in-game notification.
Watch RRRRANK 1 Kapp from xQcOW on www.twitch.tv
During the stream, xQc brought up the suspension email he received from Blizzard indicating that he had been suspended for “Abusive Chat.”
As the official rules for the Overwatch World Cup states that competing players need to have accounts that are in “good standing” it’s uncertain whether or not xQc will still be allowed to play for Team Canada. Head coach Justin “Jayne” Conroy chimed in on the topic with the following Twitter post:
I'm going to assume that @xQc's ban is temporary and account-based, and will not affect his chances of playing for @TeamCanadaOW. At the very least, there will not be any internal changes or roster adjustments at this time.
— Jayne (@EnvyJayne) August 11, 2018
It’s hard to say whether or not this will be the case. From a brand image perspective, Blizzard might want to distance themselves from players who do not demonstrate the same values that the company tries to uphold and therefore not allow him from participating in the World Cup. Blizzard announced at the beginning of the year that they are monitoring social media sites and taking action against users who exhibit toxic behavior. Whether or not xQc’s particular variety of trash talk is just typical banter or something else, the fact remains that he is a prominent Overwatch player and therefore would be wise to exercise some sort of restraint while in-game or streaming.
Featured Image Source: Overwatchgame