LA Gladiators’ Fissure Has a Message Regarding Overwatch League Boosters
Robert Paul for Blizzard EntertainmentLA Gladiators main tank Baek ‘Fissure’ Chan-hyung wants his followers to stop talking to him about boosters in the Overwatch League.
In a recent statement on Twitter, Fissure said that he’s tired of the topic dominating his interactions with fans on his stream and social media.
Fissure became a focal point of the boosting debate after he spoke out on the topic regarding Dallas Fuel’s Son ‘OGE’ Min-seok, who received a four-match ban for account boosting before even playing his first game in the Overwatch League.
Account boosting – when high-ranked players are paid to rank-up the accounts of lesser players – is seen as a major offence by many Korean players, comparable to cheating. When OGE joined the league boosting became the topic of much discussion, after commentator Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles hit out at Korean commentators for refusing to say the name of players with a history of boosting.
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Fissure himself publicly criticized OGE for boosting, and tried to add context to the wider debate by explaining just how seriously boosting is taken in Korea. However, it seems being vocal on the matter has had the consequence of Fissure being brought into much of the discussion on the topic.
The subject has come under a spotlight once again as Philadelphia Fusion’s Kim ‘SADO’ Su-Min is set to make his Overwatch League debut. SADO was signed prior to the league beginning, but received a 30-match ban for much more extensive boosting, excluding him from the first three stages.
It seems Fissure, however, isn’t interested in pushing a rivalry between himself and the players who boosted. Though he maintains his stance on the practice, in a series of Tweets he asked that fans stop questioning him about OGE and SADO.
and I’m starting to hate this more and more:
Recently, during my streams or in the reddit community and Korean fan community, people keep asking me questions related to SADO or OGE, but…
What I did was criticize them for boosting and represent the opinion of the Korean fans.— Fissure (백찬형) (@Fissure) May 16, 2018
where I talk about things related to me and see a community that’s not talking about this. Thanks everyone have a good day and cheer for tomorrow Fight shock! :grin::grin::grin:
— Fissure (백찬형) (@Fissure) May 16, 2018
Stage 4 of the Overwatch League kicks off on May 16th, when the LA Gladiators will play the opening match against San Francisco Shock. The Gladiators currently sit at 8th in the overall standings, but only two match wins behind 5th- and 6th-placed LA Valiant and Philadelphia Fusion as they chase a playoff spot.