mason banned from Twitch yet again after homophobic slur

Mason “mason” Venne is banned from Twitch once again.

The former pro Dota 2 player and current full-time streamer has been banned from the platform for the fourth time. The latest comes after he dropped a homophobic slur on his stream.

When asked about a specific hero’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, mason seemingly responded with an anti-gay epithet. While this would have been a clear violation of Twitch’s rules regarding hate speech, mason quickly caught himself and explained that he wasn’t trying to say what he had just said.

mason stated that he actually meant to say that he’s “never a fan” of the Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, with a slip of the tongue merging “fan” and “Aghanim” in an unflattering way. This resulted in a degree of sympathy for mason, but is unlikely to soften Twitch admins regarding his banned status.

Though this is his fourth ban from the platform, mason doesn’t seem to be at risk of a permanent ban. He stated on Twitter that he is appealing the ban, but is ultimately just facing a week off as punishment.

mason’s previous Twitch bans have him on short leash

In a vacuum, this incident likely wouldn’t have been a big deal and wouldn’t have resulted in such severe punishment. While Twitch moderators are notoriously inconsistent when it comes to their doling out of suspensions, there’s likely a short leash on mason due to his repeated infractions and ensuing bans for other similar situations.

mason’s first ban stemmed from pervasive sexism and racism in his chat. His most recent ban, which came in January, stemmed from his use of an ableist slur. It’s unclear what led to his second ban, and mason has not discussed the matter publicly.

What is mason’s MMR?

mason’s exact MMR is not known at this time, but judging from his placement on the North American leaderboards, he is likely sitting somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 MMR. As of this writing, he sits at 64th on the North American Dota 2 leaderboards.