About

SonicFox is the handle of gamer Dominic McClean, a notable esports competitor known for also being an openly gay and non-binary Furry and competing in costume.

History

McClean was born March 2nd, 1998.^[1] They began competitive gaming at the age of 13, playing Mortal Kombat. In 2014, they won the Injustice: Gods Among Us and Mortal Kombat tournaments at Final Round 17, establishing themself in the esports scene.

They debuted at EVO that year, losing to Pigs of the Hut in the winners bracket but coming back to win in the final. They had continued success in the following years with Mortal Kombat X and Injustice 2. With the release of Injustice 2, SonicFox gained sponsorship from Echo Fox. After several successful tournaments, they switched to playing Dragon Ball FighterZ. They won the tournament for the game at EVO 2018. They have since picked up SoulCalibur VI.

Game Awards 2018 Appearance

At the 2018 Game Awards, SonicFox was crowned Esports player of the year. In their acceptance speech, they shouted out the queer and furry communities, saying, “I’m gay, Black, a furry--pretty much everything a Republican hates.”

After the speech, conservative Twitter users criticized SonicFox. Ian Miles Cheong sarcastically stated that we needed "more politics in video games" in criticism of SonicFox (shown below, left). User @DafuqEvn called SonixFox devoid of personality for highlighting their sexuality (shown below, right).

SonicFox spent much of the following days responding to criticisms (examples shown below). The event was covered by The Daily Dot.^[2] SonicFox has over 141,000 Twitter followers.^[3]

Feud with TERFs, UK Parliament

On May 1st, 2019, Scottish National Party MP Joanna Cherry accused Twitter's Katy Marshall of not doing enough to protect women on the platform.^[4] Included in her argument was a meme posted by SonicFox which featured Zombie Land Saga character Lily saying "Shut the Fuck Up TERF" (shown below).

SonicFox had tweeted the image to writer Helen Lewis of New Statesman,^[5] who posted an article criticizing SonicFox for saying "What I do to TERFs" while executing a fatality in Mortal Kombat 11. The tweet has since been deleted.

After hearing of Cherry pointing to their meme in Parliament, SonicFox^[6] posted several tweets about the situation, arguing that TERF is not a coded derisive term for women, as both men and women ascribe to the ideology. They wrote:

"You still don't address the actual abusive nature of TERFs in general, and keep presuming it as some kind of identity when it's just another hate group that people, BOTH men and women alike subscribe to… TERFs are things both men and women subscribe to alike (I know this as you sent a bunch at me) and the fact that you made it only about women makes you really f***ing disingenuous. And I will continue to stand up to actual abusers like you and your followers in power."

The controversy was covered in a thread on /r/OutofTheLoop^[6] and Anime News Network.^[7]

Search Interest

External References