The Coronavirus pandemic has no doubt forced many into creative ways to live out their hobbies which usually require large gatherings of people. One such creative solution is Fox Sports 1's answer to the Coronavirus, in which it is having professional NASCAR racers take part in an iRacing eSports tournament.
In a recent race, professional NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, actually rage quit in the middle of an iRacing game after being intentionally hit by another player's car, and the reaction to his outburst has been mixed. There are many that find the incident hilarious, as rage quits often are, but one group in particular, Bubba Wallace's sponsor, is not happy with the turn of events.
Immediately following the incident,Wallace's sponsor, Blu-Emu, dropped Wallace because of his actions in the game. Until he quit, their logo was pasted in large font on the top of his screen being broadcast to NASCAR fans around the world, but after his outburst and subsequent rage quit, that wasn't true anymore.
Although some are criticizing Blu-Emu for reacting so harshly, what many don't understand is that actual money is still on the line for many here. Most of the viewers for this tournament are NASCAR fans rather than traditional eSports fans, and many don't value eSports in the same way. That said, Blu-Emu likely paid a lot of money to Wallace in order to promote their company, so his sudden quitting is probably a blatant breach of contract. Wallace even goes on to state after dropping out of the race that he doesn't take the race seriously.
Wallace's live streamed rage quit is rather funny though, especially when considering just how light of a tap he seemed to receive from the other player. Furthermore, each driver is allowed two resets of their car if they sustain too much damage to drive, and Wallace hadn't used his up yet. This means he could easily have simply reset his vehicle and gotten right back into the race with just as good a chance of winning, but he let his emotions get the better of him instead.
Most gamers would be lying if they said they've never rage quit a game, but to do so on live stream for an eSports event involving several professional NASCAR drivers is on another level. Maybe if the other racers and viewers take this more seriously, the public opinion of eSports could be changed.
iRacing is available now exclusively for PC.
Source: ComicBook