After well-known Call of Duty streamer Nicholas ‘Nickmercs’ Kolcheff faced heat online for his homophobic remarks on Twitter, Activision has decided to pull his in-game skin from the game.
Following the move by Activision, fellow streamer Timothy ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar recently expressed his support for Nickmercs, saying the company should revoke his Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone’s cosmetic bundle as well.
Betar has been loyal to the COD community for at least a decade and his success in the industry has made him one of the most popular content creators in the world. So, it didn’t come as a surprise when he became one of the first streamers to join COD as an operator in the game, alongside Nickmercs.
“Nickmercs has been my friend for years- we went in getting our CoD operators together. It feels wrong for me to have mine and him no longer have his. In support of my friend, please remove the timthetatman bundle,” Betar said in a Tweet on June 10.
.@NICKMERCS has been my friend for years- we went in getting our CoD operators together.
It feels wrong for me to have mine and him no longer have his. In support of my friend, please remove the timthetatman bundle@CallofDuty
— timthetatman👑 (@timthetatman) June 10, 2023
A day after Betar’s tweet, a spokesperson from Activision told Axios that they have removed TimTheTatman’s bundle from Modern Warfare II and the Warzone store as he requested.
Nickmercs has since responded that he appreciated everyone who had his back and understood his position as a new father.
— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) June 9, 2023
The brouhaha began when the FaZe co-owner made an anti-LGBTQ dogwhistle that was repeated by bigots online, saying that anything related to LGBTQ should be kept away from children. He had said this in response to an incident where anti-LGBT protestors allegedly attacked pro-LGBT demonstrators outside of a schoolboard meeting in California.
They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue.
— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) June 7, 2023
However, Nickmercs refused to apologise for his comment and FaZe has also stayed quiet on the issue. When the esports organisation tried to make a pro-LGBTQ statement at the start of Pride Month 2022, they were attacked by their own fans and members.
Professional Minecraft modder Nick Young rebuked Nickmercs’ statement, saying that “blatant homophobia is the one thing to unite all these CoD content creators. Really sucks to see this from some of my favourite creators over the years, and equally disappointing to see how much they’re getting for their views.”
This incident could potentially push Activision to halt their habit of paying homage to real people by giving them skins or easter eggs in their game in the future. Previously, Blizzard, Activision’s sister company had to remove an NPC in World of Warcraft that was based on a former employee following allegations of sexual harassment. This was not the first time, however, there were multiple instances where characters had to be revamped as they were based on individuals facing sexual offence allegations.
