TSM responds to Zexrow’s conduct, issues fine

After Zexrow’s disappointing comments following his victorious stint at Ninja Battles, Team SoloMid responds via press release

The statement comes directly from TSM CEO Andy Dinh:

CEO @TSMReginald's statement regarding ZexRow's comments:https://t.co/ACbA2X8Zv7

— TSM (@TSM) May 29, 2020

We are extremely disappointed in the comments made by Anthony "ZexRow" Colandro and take this matter very seriously. Effective immediately, he has been fined one month’s salary. His behavior was absolutely inappropriate, and does not represent the values of TSM or our brand partners.

The Fortnite community is important to us at TSM, and is made up of younger players. We know the impact words and actions have, and it is important to make sure that kids see and know that acting like this is not OK. For this reason, we are donating the amount of Zexrow’s fine to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, an organization that does amazing work for young people all over the country.

TSM echoes his apology to fans and the community, and he has expressed his sincere regret to us as well. We will be providing Zexrow with professional counseling and training, helping him to work on how he conducts himself - both publicly and privately.

Zexrow has been a valuable member of our organization for some time, and we hope to help him learn and grow from this incident. That said, we have informed him that we have a no tolerance policy for this kind of behavior, and that we will be forced to part ways if something like this should occur again in the future. We believe in Zex, and have faith that with serious personal reflection and focus, he can move forward from this.

What this means

First off, we’re glad that Zexrow wasn’t dropped from TSM all together. After Zexrow’s panicked tweets, we might just have seen the end of a dynasty in competitive Fortnite

Since you guys really want me to get dropped from tsm, I'll ask them if I can leave. It was a big mistake but I've made a lot of those so at this point I feel as I'm 2 much of a pr nightmare, I just feel bad for tsm and all the hate they'll get for this.

— ZexRow (@TSM_ZexRow) May 29, 2020

While at the same time, I really think TSM hit the nail on the head in terms of the punishment. A month of salary which will be donated towards relevant charities? In this case, the punishment fits the crime

Earlier this year, we reported that Luminosity’s Destroy was involved in a similar scandal. While the nature of his statements were more targeted and hurtful, the punishment was a $1000 fine to be donated to charity. Compared to the previous trend where organizations would simply drop players involved in malconduct, I think this is a healthy progression

Finally, the extent of Zexrow’s punishment is likely not only a financial one. Ninja hinted that Zexrow wouldn’t be welcomed back to Ninja Battles, where he had a pretty good shot at winning tens of thousands of dollars over the course of 5 more weeks

Congrats on your first and last Ninja battles placement!

— Ninja (@Ninja) May 28, 2020

Today we received another update from drama news anchor KEEMSTAR who reported Ninja’s rationale for not welcoming Zexrow back. It wasn’t the content - Ninja is generally a fan of passion (even if expressed via trash talk). It really boiled down to the fact that Zexrow used Ninja’s impressionable platform to make those vulgar comments

Do you think TSM reached an amicable solution with Zexrow? Let us know on Twitter