Chinese Overwatch League team fires pro after bullying player in ranked

The Hangzhou Spark Overwatch League team has terminated the contract of Jeong-ho ‘MCD’ Lee for comments he made in ranked towards fellow players.

On August 24, video footage surfaced of MCD, a Korean player, taking issue with someone on his team who happened to be Chinese.

In the stream footage, MCD can be heard allegedly saying “f**king Chinese” to another player who some suspect to be Zhou ‘XRAY’ Xiyan.

It’s worth noting that as a member of the Spark, MCD played with five Chinese players on his team, so his comments are even stranger in the context.

“Today, the Hangzhou Spark was made aware of an incident involving MCD’s in-game behavior. MCD’s action and comments have broken the stipulation of the player contract. It is also against the Hangzhou Spark’s team value,” the team said.

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“As stated, Jeong-ho ‘MCD’ Lee’s player contract will be terminated from today,” they added. “He will no longer serve as the Hangzhou Spark’s flex-support player.”

The decision to terminate MCD’s contract comes just weeks before the team is set to play the Philadelphia Fusion in the OWL APAC play-ins. If they win, they will play the Seoul Dynasty for the final APAC playoff spot.

The Spark’s sizable roster does afford them options to replace MCD. Tong ‘ColdEst’ Xiaodong possesses a similar hero pool and will likely take the starting role going forward.

This isn’t the first time a player has been disciplined for comments made in Overwatch’s ranked mode. Back in July 2020, the San Francisco Shock fined and suspended Park ‘Viol2t’ Min-ki for slurs made on Twitch.