Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff, 32, is the largest Twitch streamer on Call of Duty: Warzone. Since May 31st he even had his own skin in the game. But that didn’t last long. Activision Blizzard is now removing the skin after a critical tweet.
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He got these skins now: Nickmercs and TimTheTatman got their own skin bundles in Call of Duty MW 2 and Warzone 2 for Season 3 Reloaded at the end of May.
The Nickmercs bundle was released on May 31st and included an operator skin, 2 weapon blueprints, a charm and a sticker.
The 2,400 Call of Duty points that you have to put down for it costs €20.
Nickmercs is now dealing with this controversy: The United States of America has been deeply divided politically, especially since the Donald Trump era. In the USA there is an ongoing debate between the LGBTQ community and their opponents, which we in Germany can hardly understand in this sharpness.
Call of Duty broadcaster Chris Puckett posted a video on Twitter on June 7 of anti-LGBTQ protesters attacking protesters. The demonstration was apparently about whether a school would recognize June as “Pride Month”.
Nickmercs wrote:
“You should leave little children alone. That is the real problem.”
Short Twitter statement triggers huge reactions
Why is the statement problematic? Nickmercs’ relatively vague statement struck many as implying that trans people or homosexuals are somehow pedophiles or want to “transform” young children, something like that.
In any case, this was clearly interpreted as an anti-trans statement. Because the connection between LGBTQ+ and “little children” is something that is emotionally charged.
The Harry Potter author “JK Rowling” advocates the thesis that underage girls falsely identify as transsexual because they want to get out of the role of woman and would rather be boys because they supposedly have it easier in society. Rowling has been harshly criticized for this view.
This was the response to the statement: Nickmercs’ tweet was viewed 11.4 million times.
As a result, people associated with Call of Duty or e-sports distanced themselves from Nickmercs.
Loopy, Coach at Vexed Gaming wrote:
“I will never watch or work at any of your events again. I can’t in good conscience work for a hypocrite. I’m a Marine and I’m sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution, which protects demonstrations and demands equal rights for all.
“Love and Peace” for everyone unless you’re gay or trans? What a loser!”
Activision Blizzard is removing skin bundles from the shop
Here’s how Activision Blizzard is responding: The official Call of Duty account wrote today, June 9th, that they have removed the “NICKMERCS” operator bundle from the Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone stores. “Recent events”, new developments, would have led to this.
Activision Blizzard emphasizes that it celebrates Pride Month with its employees and community.
This move by Activision Blizzard, in turn, drew many Nickmercs supporters to the scene, who demanded that Activision Blizzard “take care of its own problems.” Nickmercs didn’t say anything wrong.
Some have announced they will never buy anything from Call of Duty again.
Nickmercs does not apologize, meant the statement differently
What does Nickmercs say about this? He seems to find his tweet unproblematic. He didn’t mean to upset anyone.
He had just become a father and therefore his perspective had changed. Teachers or a school should not “talk about these things”. With his tweet, he wanted to express that he and his wife want to talk to their children about “these things” and nobody else.
He doesn’t think the tweet is wrong and doesn’t want to apologize for it either. He only apologizes to the broadcaster Chris Puckett, after his reaction he must have gotten a lot. Nickmercs didn’t want that.
This is behind it: Nickmercs’ tweet “leave the little kids alone” is vague enough to read anything, especially in the heat of the US.
If Nickmercs had written “Schools shouldn’t bother young children with the subject. As a father, I want to explain this to my children,” it would certainly have been controversial, but certainly not like that.
Activision Blizzard has again had to remove a skin based on a real person from the store. You’ve been through this before with an Overwatch pro.
After “Sinatraa” affair: Blizzard removes special honor for the best player in Overwatch