Overwatch streamer xQc has removed the ‘Hyperbruh’ emote from his channel, saying it could lead to people being racist in his chat.
The ‘Hyperbruh’ emote features an African-American male with glowing eyes.
xQc became visibly frustrated with his chat spamming the emote and removed it from his channel while live on stream.
He then explained his reasons for banning ‘Hyperbruh,’ calling it “negative” and saying that people who use the emote could potentially push the line further into racist comments.
“What happens [after using Hyperbruh], it’s a chain effect…’What if I go further, what if i’m just straight racist’ and then people do it,” said xQc shortly after removing the emote.
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The move to ban the emote could be seen as a positive step for xQc, who has a reputation of being a toxic streamer.
During his time as a professional Overwatch player for the Dallas Fuel, xQc received a suspension for spamming the ‘Trihard’ emote in the chat of an official OWL stream.
‘Trihard’ was also seen as an emote with racist overtones.
He would eventually leave the OWL to focus on streaming, but still received a 15 day ban from Blizzard for abusive game chat in August.
After the incident, xQc tweeted an apology and said that he “will be better” going forward.