For the past couple of months, Blizzard has been quietly telling its Overwatch League participants that Pepe the Frog is dead to them. The lovable, yet sometimes cantankerous amphibian who has been used by the gaming community to convey both gratification and disappointment has been banned. Turned into frog legs.

The reason? Pepe the frog has been appropriated by racist and hate groups–they planned it all along–and some of you are allowing it to happen.

Pepe the Frog was crafted by Matt Furie in 2005. It quickly resonated with gamers and became a meme when it was seen in the comic, Boy’s Club #1. In the comic, Pepe is seen urinating with sagging pants with the catchphrase “feels good man.” When the printed comic book was launched in 2006 it omitted the depiction of the urinating Pepe and by 2008, Pepe was the unofficial adopted mascot of gamers and esports.

According to the Daily Beast, @JaredTSwift an anonymous white nationalist, told the publication there is “an actual campaign to reclaim Pepe from normies.” The article goes on to describe normies as mainstream members of society, but failed to mention that gamers had been using the frog as a meme for years.

The assault and appropriation campaign started in late 2015 on /r9k/, a 4chan board. /r9k/ had a connection to Elliot Rodger who killed six people at UC Santa Barbara in 2014 as well as gamergate. This was the beginning of the end of esports professionals being allowed to use Pepe any longer. The white nationalist group started associating Pepe with Nazi propaganda, depicting the frog with Nazi characteristics and code embedded in the pictures.

Afterwards, the group allegedly started associating the frog with Donald Trump and his bid for the white house–this is when some journalists first saw pictures of the meme. So for some, their first experience with Pepe was severely negative and they failed to research the frog’s origins.

The shot heard round the world in relationship to turning Pepe into a symbol of hatred occurred on Jan. 7, when a Republican consultant named Cheri Jacobus tweeted, “The green frog symbol is what white supremacists use in their propaganda. U don’t want to go there.” The war seems to be about over and in this timeline, the good guys are about to lose. Especially with Blizzard jumping onto the political correctness train.

According to a report by Dot Esports, a league spokesperson told the publication that, “The Overwatch League discourages the use of symbols and imagery which are associated with or used by hate groups, including Pepe the Frog. At Blizzard Arena, it’s our policy that fans comply with this policy. We likewise ask the same of Overwatch League teams and players on their social-media accounts.”

From what sources are saying, it wasn’t an ask–it was an order and some people have a problem with it, but their objections won’t mean much.

In their eyes, banning Pepe is the equivalent to stealing a part of esports culture. Pepe has been around and memed by gamers and esports players and fans for a much longer period of time. To allow white supremacists and other malcontents to take something that is cherished in the esports culture hurts.

Esports and gaming is changing for the better but not without its pains. Behaviors once thought acceptable are being weeded out and the most toxic among us are learning that there is no place in gaming or esports for any type of bigotry. However, there is a place for edgy banter and jokes that make the space as authentic as its history. Just once wouldn’t it be nice if somebody would step up and say, “No, we embrace Pepe and what it means to the esports community and we’re not going to let white nationalist extremist dictate our behavior or how we express ourselves as a community.”

Ah. The dream. And unfortunately it’ll stay just that.

Bye-bye Pepe. The pleasure was all ours.