Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has a racism problem, and at least one pro player isn’t standing for it.
During a recent Twitch stream, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev ripped into a teammate for an inappropriate in-game handle. The pub game interaction was clipped and immortalized:
While playing a pub game on Vertigo, S1mple was paired with a teammate whose handle was “Kill All N—-rs” with a small misspelling to get around Steam’s filters. The Natus Vincere star called him out on it, saying he had a “bad nickname,” which resulted in the offending player getting defensive. From there, S1mple states that he’s a “bad person” which prompts another teammate to initiate a vote kick.
The motion quickly passes which leaves S1mple and the remaining players smirking, with the pro dryly stating that they are “good humans” for following through.
It’s a fun moment with one of the game’s most popular players righteously calling out someone for bad behavior. S1mple has had no trouble attracting the attention of fans with his competitive heroics playing a key role in Natus Vincere’s rise to the top of the CS:GO scene, but he has also established himself as one of the game’s most compelling streamers by mixing together quality banter with his peerless gunslinging.
It’s also somewhat sad that even at the cream of the CS:GO crop, encountering such casual racism isn’t a surprise.
Though games like Overwatch have a heavily policed player base with aggressive automated muting, numerous chat filters, and even the threat of a ban after repeated infractions, CS:GO is run more loosely. The popular FPS has no real measures in place to discourage players from using offensive language, and that has allowed racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language to become a standard part of the game experience.
Valve seems to largely be fine with the game as it is, but players have at least a modest ability to police one another. S1mple is doing his part.
