Esports organization M80 suffered a crucial blow yesterday when a member of its Overwatch 2 team was embroiled in an expose released on Twitter. This news comes right after M80 announced a new Overwatch roster for 2024.
It looks like the entire squad is no longer involved with the eSports team. This puts a question mark on their participation in the upcoming Overwatch Championship Series.
Several M80 Overwatch 2 players accused of racist insults
The players involved in the accusations are Samuel “s9mm” Santos, Christian “Ojee” Han, and Michael “Mikeyy” Konicki. Screenshots from their Discord conversations were shared online, where they repeatedly used racial slurs in the conversations.
The images were taken sometime between the Overwatch Championship in 2022 and 2023. Ojee had left his computer open, which had Discord logged in. The conversations took place between the players as part of a group chat.
A Twitter user, who goes by the name Viewer, shared how he got hold of the screenshots. An unknown account shared the images with him. He reached out to Ojee, who apologized for the choice of words being used and regretted the whole incident.
The pictures were taken by the French Overwatch World Cup team. Viewer reached out to them to confirm the legibility of the screenshots. A comment was not made as to why they did not report the incident earlier on.
M80 dissolves their Overwatch 2 squad
Initially, M80 released s9mm from their roster after they received the same screenshots. The CEO of M80 was quoted as saying they had no option but to release the player.
It was expected the team would look for someone to fill the vacant position, considering the team was only announced a couple of days ago. But M80 later dropped huge news that they were letting go of the entire squad.
A tweet shared by M80 stated that building a ‘cohesive’ team was no longer possible. They wished the players the best of luck in their future endeavors and participation in the upcoming Overwatch Championship.
The development comes mere days after the M80 boss termed their participation in the OWCS ‘low-risk’. This is the first tournament after the Overwatch League was scrapped in favor of an open-league format.
The North American leg of the Overwatch Championship Series starts on March 8, 2024.
