Luminosity’s Destroy under fire after sexist remarks

Competitive gamer Destroy takes a massive hit after sexist clips go viral

Alex “Destroy” Benabe is among Twitch’s top Fortnite talent, boasting well over 100,000 followers on the platform. Today, however, his achievements are overshadowed after allegations of sexism makes waves across the community

During 3v3 box-fight wagers, this interaction between Destroy and a female player “Luvstruckgurl” occurred

This guy is representing your org? Very unprofessional and sad to the fortnite community @luminosity @stevemaida pic.twitter.com/6AH6z7CbUT

— luvstruck (@luvstruckgurl) December 30, 2019

Towards the end of the clip, Destroy tells Luvstruckgurl to “Cry me a river” and tops it off by remarking, “You should be in the kitchen. Go cook me a sandwich sweetheart.” Not only does this clip reek of distaste, Destroy also botched the expression by saying “cook” instead of “make.” Those are some surprisingly rookie moves coming from a veteran content creator

Not long after, another female Fortnite player took to Twitter with a story of her own. She goes by the name “Demi” and is the person referenced in her attached clip

Its already tough being a girl in the gaming community. I play the game for fun and play wagers to get better. I played this streamer that has been so toxic to me in the past. I'm getting called a "Bitch" and was told to go "cook" him a sandwich over game. @Luminosity @stevemaida pic.twitter.com/Nu2PaACCHT

— demisux (@demisxxual) December 30, 2019

Destroy quickly responded to the growing thread with a sincere apology and made it clear that the lapse in judgement was “out of character”

Yes, I was wrong. Instantly apologized for what happened. Completely came out of character. Trash talk just going to far.

— LG Destroy (@Destroy_215) December 30, 2019

A few hours later, Ghost Aydan jumped into the thread vouching for Destroy’s character

Forgive @Destroy_215 pic.twitter.com/8YQNMhk67Q

— Aydan (@aydan) December 30, 2019

Regardless of how “wrong” Destroy is, we can all agree that this isn’t a good look for him. It can’t be argued that these statements were made in good faith by any stretch. Females in the gaming community have always lugged around a particularly annoying set of baggage: a negative stigma. There’s a reason why female gamers are underrepresented in the gaming community; comments like these don’t exactly help the cause

If you don’t believe me, I employ you to look at the comment sections of either of the aforementioned threads. A majority of the replies are mocking the original posters by copy-pasting sympathizing comments. I totally understand that most commenters aren't being serious, it just feels quite backward that someone who was just told some nasty things would be met with more coldness

I also understand the other side of the argument - Destroy’s comments shouldn’t be taken too seriously. To an extent, I agree: banter and sh*t talk stays on the battlefield and we can all walk away friends. Only I feel as though when people bring up characteristics that others can’t change (e.g. race, gender, etc.), we as a community aren’t bringing our best

Do I think that Luminosity should cut Destroy over this controversy? No, he’s a bright kid with a future ahead of him. Everyone makes mistakes, cut Destroy some slack and instead give him the opportunity to redeem himself. An apology, which he has already extended, is a good first step. The next step is action

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