The Guard player steps away from social media after family threatened over Masters loss

After The Guard’s shock exit from the VCT Stage 1 Masters in Reykjavik, Michael ‘neT’ Bernet was forced to lock his social media accounts after disgruntled fans threatened his family.

On April 16 The Guard were upset and sent home by Singaporean org Paper Rex in the first round of the lower bracket playoffs. After winning the 2022 NA Stage 1 Challengers, The Guard was heavily favored headed into the Stage 1 Masters.

The loss to Paper Rex defintiely came as a shock then, with some upset fans forcing neT to lock his social media accounts after his family was threatened.

“It needs to stop”

Shortly after the loss on April 16, neT posted a twitlonger explaining why he was setting his socials to private.

“I can’t believe I need to make my socials private again because you guys getting so mad over a video game,” he wrote. “I understand I made a misplay. It doesn’t justify messaging my family and spamming all my private socials.”

• Read More: Paper Rex to play like they have nothing to lose at Valorant Masters

How long neT intends to keep his accounts private remains to be seen, but it’s clear the Valorant pro found the fan’s actions completely unacceptable.

“I cannot reiterate enough how messaging my family members or showing people in my private life hate is not ok.”

Esports pros receiving hate after a disappointing defeat is nothing new, but the amount of vitriol hurled at The Guard was probably higher because they were so highly rated going into the tournament.

• Read More: Sinatraa responds to Valorant community reactions ahead of VCT return

Having won NA Challengers, The Guard also would have been a favorite for those betting money on the outcome of Masters Reykjavik, and the Paper Rex match individually as well. While we can’t say for sure, having money on the line could be what made the responses so over the top this time.