Florida Mayhem head coach “cannot find forgiveness” for new recruit BQB’s boosting history
L: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment, R: KongdooFlorida Mayhem head coach Choi ‘R2der’ Hyun-jin has some strong words regarding one of his new players.
The Mayhem recently announced the addition of three new players, including former X6-Gaming DPS Lee ‘BQB’ Sang-bum.
During his time with X6-Gaming, BQB was found to have been connected to an account boosting service. Though his winnings were donated to charity by X6 as punishment and he made a public apology, it seems Mayhem’s head coach does not consider BQB’s debt repaid.
Boosting is the practice of paying a high-skilled player to boost the rank of another, lower-skilled player. It can be done by having the high-skilled player log into the account of the player being boosted and playing solo to rank up – itself a breach of Blizzard’s rules on account-sharing – or by the high-skilled player playing alongside the customer on a lower-ranked account of their own.
BQB isn’t the first Overwatch League player with a history of promoting or participating in boosting. Dallas Fuel’s Son ‘OGE’ Min-seok and Philadelphia Fusion’s Kim ‘SADO’ Su-min both received suspensions on their entry to the league for being involved in boosting, the latter suspended for the entirety of the first three stages.
While boosting is certainly widely disapproved of, it is a particularly offensive crime in South Korea. In Season One, this manifested in some drama after it was reported that commentators on the Korean broadcast were avoiding referring to OGE and SADO by name because of their history.
For some, it seems that boosting is an unforgivable offence, and one such person is apparently BQB’s own new head coach, R2der.
In a series of tweets on the matter, R2der stated that he “cannot find forgiveness for what he did wrong” and pledged to do community service with him in order to help balance out his sins.
I want to help society as much as he did wrong.
— r2der / Choi Hyun Jin (@r2derOW) October 15, 2018
Once again I am sorry for the overwatch fans, We'll always reflect on myself and try to do good things.
— r2der / Choi Hyun Jin (@r2derOW) October 15, 2018
With Florida Mayhem’s three new players still pending approval by the Overwatch League, it remains to be seen whether BQB will also be punished by the league. Season Two of the Overwatch League is scheduled to kick off on February 14.