Chassidy “Cupcake” Kaye is a Twitch streamer, the captain of the Central Michigan Overwatch team, a rank 111 peak player, and a recent victim of online sexist abuse.
Chassidy uploaded a clip from a recent stream to Twitter. In the video she is repeatedly berated by a series of sexist comments by her male teammates.
These teammates told her Chassidy “shut the fuck up and make us sandwiches,” “go mop my floor,” and that “women have lower IQ.” Chassidy shared the clipped video on Twitter, reminding the Overwatch community about the amount of sexist and toxic behavior that female players encounter on a regular basis.
The video spawned a great deal of discourse. Plenty of replies were filled with supportive comments, but many others criticized Chassidy’s choice to expose her teammates. Some said that the whole situation was her fault for her being passive aggressive, or that she was making a mountain out of an anthill.
Eventually Chassidy muted the Tweet but chose to keep her spirits high in spite of the situation.
“Please be respectful to one another in your comp games. Just be nice. Spread positivity, not hate. Love you all,” Chassidy said.
Toxicity, verbal abuse, and harassment are an unfortunately common issue that many people face in online competitive gaming. Developers at Blizzard have continuously worked towards finding a solution to toxic behavior in Overwatch. The most recent attempt to cut down on toxicity was the implementation of the endorsement system, which encourages a more positive attitude.
Blizzard research developer Natasha Miller reported that the overall amount of toxicity has greatly diminished since endorsements went live. However, from examining Chassidy’s and many other women’s experiences with this sort of online abuse, it is evident that such behaviors are far from gone.
Nonetheless, Chassidy has made it clear that she isn’t about to let a bunch of hostile comments stop her.
“I’m going to continue to speak no matter what. They can say whatever the fuck they want, this is my game too,” Chassidy said.
