Call Of Duty pulls Nickmercs’ Operator skin after anti LGBTQ+ tweet

Activision have removed Nickmercs’ Operator skin from several Call of Duty games after the streamer posted an anti-LGBTQ+ tweet.

As reported by PC Gamer, the Nickmercs Operator skin has been removed from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Warzone following offensive comments made by the streamer. Earlier this week, on 7 June, MLG executive and former Halo pro Chris Puckett retweeted a video of an attack on pro-LGBTQ+ rights demonstrators outside of a school board meeting in Glendale, California.

Puckett added, “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 later responded to the tweet, sharing an opposing view to Puckett. He wrote, “They should leave little children alone. That’s the real issue.”

Puckett replied, “Who is this they and what terrible act is everyone afraid of? I think/hope the goal of most of ‘them’ is to reduce child suicides. This is done through acceptance and removing of stigma of feeling/being different.”

Many former fans of Nickmercs were extremely disappointed in the streamer’s tweet. One user wrote, “I’m disappointed in you Nick. Teaching acceptance and tolerance for EVERYONE is a valuable life skill for all ages,” while another added, “Literally EW. The REAL issue is people like you existing and spreading anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric. You are disgusting and sad.”

A different user commented, “I will never work/watch a MFAM event again. I cannot in good conscience work for a bigot. I am a Marine and swore to uphold and protect the constitution which protects protests and demands equality for all. ‘Peace and love’ unless you’re gay or trans? What a loser.”

In the days since, Nick has addressed his tweet during a livestream. He refuses to apologise or back down. He told viewers, “I simply feel that I want to be the one, and my wife wants to be the one to speak with our child about stuff like that - and that was the tweet. You can take the tweet if you want and spin it, flip it [...] to make you feel better if that’s what you want to do, but that was the tweet. [...] I didn’t mean to upset anybody. I know that I did. I’m not apologising about the tweet [...] I stand by what I said, I’m not going to delete the tweet.”

Later, Call of Duty confirmed the removal of the Nickmercs skin via Twitter. They wrote, “Due to recent events, we have removed the ‘NICKMERCS Operator’ bundle from the Modern Warfare II and Warzone store. We are focused on celebrating PRIDE with our employees and our community.”

Nickmercs hasn’t commented on the removal of the skin.