Streamer iShowSpeed Apologizes For Sexist Remarks Made Towards Valorant Player In Viral Clip

Prominent YouTube streamer iShowSpeed was banned from Valorant and other Epic Games titles yesterday after a months-old clip of him making sexist remarks to another player went viral.

The clip, which shows iShowSpeed yelling at another player to "get off the game and go do [her] husband's dishes," was shared by Twitter user @JakeSucky, the co-owner of Full Squad Gaming and an esports reporter. In the post, which boasts over 145,000 likes and 11,000 retweets at the time of writing, he wrote, "I now understand why Valorant queues are so unbelievably toxic. You got one of the most popular streamers on YouTube IShowSpeed saying crap like this and getting nothing but praise and laughs. Crap is whack." Roughly three hours after the post was made, Sarah Dadafshar, a producer at Riot Games, the company behind Valorant, responded. In her comment, she reveals that she had Speed's account banned from not only Valorant, but all games produced by the company.

This is a huge yikes and we do NOT want players like this in our community at all. I went ahead and perma banned this player from VALORANT, as well as all other Riot Games. Thanks for raising this. Please keep raising stuff like this and reporting so we can make VAL safer. 🔨🔥

— 🌱 Sara Dadafshar (@npcSara) April 7, 2022

News of iShowSpeed's ban quickly spread across social media and inspired mixed reactions. One commenter shared a clip from another of Speed's Valorant streams showing two players making racist remarks to him, seemingly hurting Speed's feelings. The poster claimed this clip was from the same stream, however, this doesn't seem to be the case. YouTuber W plug😈 uploaded extended clips from both streams to their channel back in February. The video with Speed's rant, titled "ISHOWSPEED PLAYS VALORANT FOR THE SECOND TIME," was posted on February 20th, while the stream where the racist remarks are made toward him, titled, "ISHOWSPEED GOES PSYCHO PLAYING VALORANT FOR THE 3RD TIME," was uploaded three days later. Regardless of when they were taken, many are still saying it doesn't excuse Speed's behavior based on the size of his following and his influence on young people. iShowSpeed himself is 17-years-old.

Literally same game https://t.co/vfum32UNUN

— 🤭‼️ (@hawkeye760) April 7, 2022

Following the ban, iShowSpeed posted a video to Twitter where he apologized for his actions. In the video, viewed over 1.9 million times at the time of writing, he said he "wasn't having a good day" and that people were sending him racist messages and jokes about his dead aunt but added that's "no excuse." He goes on to take full blame for the situation and said the clip is from "months ago" and that he's changed since then, reminding everyone that he's still young and growing. These sentiments were echoed by streamer Adin Ross, who recently reacted to the clip on his stream and defended Speed, saying he's changed since then.

Ross and Speed were notably involved in a controversy back in December where iShowSpeed made a rape joke to a woman during one of Ross's dating streams, which ended up getting Speed permanently banned from Twitch.

.JakeSucky</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Chen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Chen sorry pic.twitter.com/IR0V08qtYx

— Speed⭐️ (@IShowSpeed) April 7, 2022

Drama Alert host Keemstar has been one of the more vocal defenders of iShowSpeed's actions over the past day. Since the clip went viral, Keemstar has made a variety of tweets defending Speed's actions in the clip as "trash talking." In one video response, Keemstar said the trash talk is "not real" and it's in a "fantasy video game." In another tweet he calls the backlash against iShowSpeed racist, showing a series of tweets by streamer King Richard to @JakeSucky sharing the same sentiment.

Trash Talk in video games. pic.twitter.com/dfpwnl3HfS

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) April 7, 2022

Another Black Creator / Streamer KingRichard</a> calls out <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSucky?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">JakeSucky for his attack on @IShowSpeed! #DramaAlert pic.twitter.com/8Ztx1H0kq8

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) April 7, 2022

Streamer xQc criticized Keemstar for his opinion on it being "just trash talk" in a comment, writing, "Apparently keemstar seems to think that "is a female talking to me? Get off the game and do your wash and dishes" is good 'trash talk' or even 'trash talk' at all. Pretty rich to try to use the racism card while overlooking blatant sexism. Stop baiting women haters. Getting old." Keemstar responded by tweeting out several old clips from xQc's streams purportedly showing him also trash-talking women in games in an attempt to paint him as a hypocrite. xQc has not responded to the clips.

Champion of woman @xQc ! pic.twitter.com/2piAlMc9IT

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) April 7, 2022

Champion of woman @xQc #2 pic.twitter.com/uMy7G3S0me

— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) April 7, 2022