The following report contains details some readers may find distressing.
A professional Fortnite player has been condemned after a video appeared online of the esports pro saying a number of racial slurs, before later defending them.
Sin3278 had recently qualified for the Fortnite Champion Series Grand Finals when a video was posted online which reportedly showed the player entering a weapons closet whilst saying, “Just in case there’s ever a zombie apocalypse or a n**ger outbreak, we got the armoury n**ga.” The armoury contained a large number of very real pistols, shotguns, rifles, in addition to a large supply of ammo.
Advert
The video was posted by fellow Fortnite pro Nexy who accompanied the disturbing video with the caption, “Crazy how Sin3278 kid is allowed to play in grands after tweeting this.”
Sin3278 later took to Twitter to confirm that it was indeed him speaking and filming in the video. He also defended his racist remarks commenting, “The clip of the guns is me, I don’t understand why everyone is so mad. I literally said ‘IF there is ever a zombie or n**gger outbreak, then we got the armoury n**ga.’ I never threatened anyone or said I’m going to do anything, everyone watch the clip and listen to what I said.”
Following this, Sin3278 has since deleted his Twitter but screenshots have appeared online reportedly showing the Fortnite player’s response to the backlash. In a series of tweets, Sin3278 appeared to boast about being “strapped” whilst declaring he was “racist and proud.” Sin3278 also appeared to tweet “F**k black” before referring to his earlier comments about a “n**ggr outbreak” as “my biggest fear”.
Fellow esports pros were quick to criticise Sin3278’s harmful comments. Esports personality Jake Lucky wrote, “Actually insane that people like this exist in the space.” AcropolisFN, a teammate of Sin3278, said “I do not associate with anything Sin has said and do not agree with it [...] I will never be associating with him again and I hope you all understand I have no control over anything.” However, one user posted a since-deleted tweet reportedly posted by Acro in response to the video which supposedly showed him using the monkey and laughing-crying face emoji.
Advert
As reported by Kotaku, the University of Maryland’s director of esports Sergio Brack has explained how events like this affect black players. He said, “We don’t just make this stuff up. Black people are not valued, protected, or respected in this space and I’m reminded of that on a regular basis.”
Epic Games is yet to release a statement on Sin3278’s remarks. It’s believed that the player has continued to professionally compete since the remarks appeared online.
Topics: no article matching, Fortnite, Esports, Epic Games