An Overwatch League pro won’t be making it back to the stage after being dropped from the London Spitfire over grooming allegations.
The start of the latest season of Overwatch League is only weeks away, with a start date of May 5. Teams have been scrimming in preparation for the new season that will see them competing in an early version of Overwatch 2. But now London Spitfire may be scrambling to find a new player after Owen “Prov1de” Warner was dropped from the team on April 9.
On Twitter, London Spitfire came forward about the situation stating that the team was “made aware of a code of conduct violation.” As a result, London Spitfire had an internal investigation. Soon after, Prov1de and London Spitfire mutually parted ways “effective immediately.”
London Spitfire wrote that it is actively looking for a replacement player. Prov1de was a support player for London Spitfire, playing almost every support hero in the game. The 23-year-old was signed in 2021, his second foray in the Overwatch League.
The London Spitfire’s tweet didn’t give any further information about what Prov1de did to violate the team’s code of conduct. This left many people wondering what Prov1de had done to be so suddenly dropped from a team right before the start of a new season.
A Twitter user named “Emmaismental” has shared the reason behind Prov1de dropping from London Spitfire. The Twitter user shared screenshots of Prov1de inappropriately interacting with her on Discord while he went by the name “Slur.” At that time, Emma was 16 years old.
In the conversations, Prov1de states that he wants to show Emmaismental “his bulge,” despite knowing that Emma was just 16, something they acknowledged multiple times in the screenshots. At one point, Prov1de questioned if it was wrong to have feelings for someone four years younger than himself, hoping they could still become close despite the age difference.
The Overwatch League community was torn about the revelation. Some were quick to jump to Emmaismental’s side. Emmaismental accused Prov1de of having gaslighted them in a follow-up tweet, which further upset many the community.
Some others felt that the age difference in this case wasn’t worth Prov1de being dropped from his pro team. But besides the age difference, there was a clear power imbalance. Prov1de was already a known Overwatch pro when the two began speaking while Emmaismental was still a teenage in school.
It doesn’t seem likely that Prov1de will be back in the Overwatch League, although there is still a chance he could return later. In 2020, Prov1de made a TwitLonger apologizing for racial slurs he said in 2018. This situation led to his dismissal from the Los Angeles Valiant.
At the time, Prov1de retired from the Overwatch League and started playing in the Challengers circuit. But with a second allegation against him, it seems Prov1de may have lost his chance to compete in the OWL for good.
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