NICKMERCS refusing to play Modern Warfare 3 over Pride Month controversy

Content creator NICKMERCS is one of the most popular streamers on the planet with 6.7 million followers on Twitch and over four million subscribers on YouTube.

NICKMERCS, co-owner of FaZe Clan, is perhaps best known for competitively streaming multiplayer games such as Call of Duty, and never too far away from controversy. Back in April 2023, NICKMERCS called for drastic action to be taken against plagues of hackers and cheaters that ruin online multiplayer games.

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“If you cheat & hack in video games, you should 100% be sent to jail,” he tweeted. “I know the majority of y’all are busy touching grass & s**t, that’s lit, super happy for ya. But your boy just spent 20 hours getting hacked in online video games & I’ve had enough.”

NICKMERCS is so prominent on the Call of Duty scene, that he even once had his own Operator skin until it was pulled by Activision following an anti-LGBTQ+ tweet. The tweet in question was in relation to NICKMERCS, real name Nick Kolcheff responding to a tweet following a video showing an attack on pro-LGBTQ+ protesters outside a school in Glendale, California in the US.

Major League Gaming and former Halo pro, Chris Puckett tweeted: “This happened four blocks from my Overwatch League apartment. Americans are in a sad place right now. Let people love who they love and live your own life.” NICKMERCS responded to the tweet, sharing an opposing view to Puckett. He wrote, “They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue.”

In response to NICKMERCS having his Operator skin pulled from Call of Duty by Activision, the content created responded and vented frustration in a following Twitch stream. “If Call of Duty, they [Activision] don’t want to associate themselves with me because that’s how I feel, then so what? F**k em. They can agree to disagree.”

As reported by Dexerto, NICKMERCS was asked by a viewer on his stream whether he intends to play the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. He replied: “I mean probably not. I might, but probably not.” NICKMERCS explained: “Part of it is hard because if you’re me, like a lot of you guys, I grew up playing CoD. So obviously I have a lot of friends who still play CoD…”

I think it’s interesting that NICKMERCS uses the word “probably” on at least two occasions and does appear to be indecisive on his stance. To be fair, he’s obviously a fan of Call of Duty and we would assume that it makes him a lot of money when restreaming, regardless of whether Activision is officially endorsing him or not. So we wouldn't be surprised to see NICKMERCS playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and the new iteration of Warzone later in the year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will be released on 10 November 2023 for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.