A professional Overwatch player shared their experiences with anti-Asian racism on a Twitch stream earlier this week, describing living in America as an Asian person right now as terrifying.Eui-Sok Lee, also known as Fearless, is currently a pro signed with the Dallas Fuel Overwatch League team. Although he is from South Korea, Lee is currently residing in Dallas, Texas at the Fuels training center.Professional esports players like Lee occasionally hosts streams on Twitch, which is where Lee shared with his audience his experience in the United States during the pandemic. During the stream, Lee talked about what its like living in Texas during this time. The state recently eased Covid restrictions, opening up the city while simultaneously rolling back mask mandates.
Its pretty scary; people dont even wear masks around here so it worries me, Lee says during his stream.
i dont know if i’m “stepping out of line” for translating something about what another team’s player is experiencing
but here’s the full translation of that Fearless clip.please see some of what OWL players and staff are facing as Asians in America. pic.twitter.com/LZWvnRkuAx
swingchip (@swingchip930) April 6, 2021
This segued to Lee talking about his encounters with racism while in Texas. Being Asian here is terrifying, Lee says who described incidents where people would come up to him, remove their masks, and cough on him
Lee says he sometimes wears his team jersey when he goes out as a form of a deterrent from harassment. If I have my jersey on I think they realize were part of some kind of team, so they dont bother us as much, but if I have my everyday clothes on, they run up to us, harass us, then run away.
There has been an increase in attention to anti-Asian racism, especially in the past year where rhetoric around the Covid-19 pandemic such as when former president Donald Trump referred to it as the Chinese Virus.
They call us Chinese, then harass us. The racism here is unspeakable, Lee says at one point during his stream.
Incidents of anti-Asian racism have escalated in the United States ranging from attacks on the elderly to a shooting in Georgia that killed 8 people, six of whom were women of Asian descent.
I am deeply saddened by the situations some of our @DallasFuel players have been put in while walking the streets here in Dallas, TX. This is a great city in a proud state. This isn’t something we should be proud of at all and should all pitch in to change it. pic.twitter.com/Sq7MGlco50
Mike Rufail (@hastr0) April 6, 2021
Team Envy CEO Mike Rufail took to his personal Twitter account to decry the harassment his players faced while in Dallas. This is a great city in a proud state. This isnt something we should be proud of at all and should all pitch in to change it, Rufail writes.
Rufail says measures are being taken to ensure the players safety when they go out, but no specific details were provided during Rufails video.
In a statement to IGN, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson also denounced the harassment. At Activision Blizzard, we condemn racism in the strongest possible terms. We stand with the Asian community, our employees, and our players and are working across our organization, including esports, to do our part to combat hate and ignorance.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.Photo by Robert Paul via Blizzard Entertainment