Photo: IShowSpeed
A popular Black streamer on YouTube is facing backlash after a viral clip shows him verbally attacking a female teammate in a video game.
IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Watkins, was shown in a video going off on his teammates after dying in Valorant, a cooperative shooter by League of Legends developer Riot Games. After someone tells Speed he has to "hit those shots," Watkins told him to "Shut your stupid a** up, n****! Who is you talking to bruh?"
As the teenage streamer goes back and forth with the teammate, that's when the female player chimes in. Speed then blows up on her, shouting "Is a b**** talking to me? Is a female talking to me?"
“Get off the f**king game and do your husband’s dishes b*tch. Shut up," the 17-year-old continues. "Stop talking to me like that. I’m not one of those lame a** Valorant nerds."
Jake Lucky, who frequently reports on gaming and creator news, posted the clip to Twitter on Wednesday (April 6), which amassed over 6 million views and more than 136,000 likes as of Thursday afternoon (April 7).
WARNING: The clip below contains graphic language. Viewer discretion is advised.
This also caught the attention of Valorant developer Sara Dadafshar, who responded to the clip saying, "This is a huge yikes and we do not want players like this in our community at all. I went ahead and perma banned this player from Valorant, as well as all other Riot Games."
YouTube’s Global Head of Gaming Creators Lester Chen also said the company will be looking into Watkins' conduct.
Hours later, Speed released an apology video on Twitter, explaining that the outburst happened months ago.
"I wasn’t having a good day," he says. "I was getting a lot of racist text-to-speech donations, a lot of people talking about my dead aunt that's in the grave right now, but I don’t want to make that [an] excuse. I’m wrong."
The rising YouTube star also says that he's still young and has changed since then.
"Every situation I grow and I change, and I got to become a better person That is not me no more. That is not me," he continues. Speed also added that he would like to contact the girl involved in the clip and apologize directly to her. The streamer also talked about a potential hiatus during a YouTube livestream, according to Dexerto.
Fans and onlookers called out Dadafshar and Lucky for not reporting about the racist insults Speed suffered in a separate incident. The clip shows Speed asking how to heal in the game before a couple of teammates told him that "only white characters can heal." The Valorant developer quote-tweeted the clip, saying they'll be looking for those players and ban them, as well.
IShowSpeed had a meteoric rise since he started posting video game content in April 2020. He has nearly 7 million subscribers on YouTube thanks to his loud, off-the-wall reactions. The content creator found himself in hot water for threatening sexual violence against a female streamer during a speed dating event earlier this year, leading to a permanent ban on Twitch.
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