With millions of people playing video games around the globe on a daily basis, it should come as no surprise that esports are gaining popularity. Numerous games are played competitively, such as League of Legends, Valorant, and Overwatch, just to name a few. However, this increased popularity means extra scrutiny for those competing at the highest level. Unfortunately for one pro player, they found this out the hard way.
Among the notable names in professional esports in Japan is Tekken player Tanukana. Described by some as an up-and-coming player on the pro scene, she was part of the eSport organization known as Cyclops Athlete Gaming that had teams for a number of video games, including the previously mentioned Tekken. Over the last couple of months, she had gained popularity in Japan due to her skills in the fighting game genre. Despite this success, she recently made some unusual comments that threatened to ruin her promising career in the industry.
During a livestream from February 15, Tanukana made some statements that caught the attention of her audience for the wrong reasons. Specifically, these unusual comments were directed towards men of a certain height. According to the pro Tekken player, “Men who are under 170 cm (5 ft 6.9 in) don’t have human rights.” However, she was not done. In addition to this odd and controversial remark, she said that men that are shorter in stature should get bone-lengthening surgery.
These comments were obviously unusual and possibly offensive to those that were shorter. These remarks from Tanukana were made even stranger when considering that the average male in Japan is only 170.8 cm or 5 ft 7.2 in, based on information from Healthline. As one might suspect, many people did not react favorably to these controversial opinions from the streamer. While the esports player noted that her intentions were not to cause harm to short people, this was not enough for some.
Following this livestream, Cyclops Athlete Gaming responded to the matter. In a statement, the Japanese esports organization made clear that it disagreed with Tanukana’s remarks and apologized for the pro player’s behavior. “We would like to offer a deep apology to the fans, sponsors, and everyone else who supports us,” the statement read. In addition, it decided to drop the pro player from its roster and terminate her contract in the process.
It is worth noting that Tanukana eventually released another apology addressing her fans and sponsor. “I have deep remorse for this statement, which is unbecoming of a pro esports athlete and a member of society,” she said. It will be interesting to see where Tanukana and Cyclops Athlete Gaming go from here following this unfortunate set of events.
Source: Kotaku