Professional Call of Duty player Maurice “Fero” Henriquez has been criticized after an old clip in which he uses a racial slur surfaced on Reddit, from before his days competing in the Call of Duty World League.
Prior to turning 18 last year, Fero was an up and coming amateur player in the Call of Duty scene, well known in the online tournament and Search and Destroy community.
Due to age restrictions, he was unable to compete professionally in CWL events, but still made a name for himself as a proficient player.
Now 19, Fero has found himself on a top roster competing in the CWL Pro League under Team Kaliber, a storied organization in Call of Duty.
As a young player, he has made numerous faux pas during his breakout season, including using the ‘n-word’ as he announced himself a free agent, prior to joining tK. He was quoting a line from a Drake song.
On June 5th, a Reddit post uploaded a short clip from Fero’s live stream, presumably from during the Black Ops III season (Nov 2015-16).
In it, he becomes infuriated after dying, exclaiming that he is never playing with black people again in money 8s and uses the N-word.
“I’m never playing with f****** n****** again dude. I literally am blacklisting black people from money 8s, bro, I don’t give a f***. All they do is flank, it’s so dumb.”
Warning: the following clip contains very strong language.
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If during the Black Ops III season, Fero would be aged between 16 and 17 years old at the time of this clip.
Many fans on Reddit were disappointed to hear the language used by Fero, despite the clip obviously being dated.
Others also called his language “inexcusable” and “unprofessional”, and some were even harsher still.
While his comments are vulgar and extremely racist, some argue he is simply being ‘edgy’ in his youth and ignorance at the time of the clip.
There has been a recent trend with high profile personalities being exposed for past transgressions, particularly with searches on Twitter displaying racist or homophobic language used years ago.
It serves as another reminder that anything said on the internet whether by live stream or on social media can and will resurface years later.