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With esports under siege from the mainstream press for a lack of sensitivity, Justin Chandler is not doing the industry any favors. The Team Kaliber owner has embarrassed himself, the industry, his team, and their sponsors in a series of tweets on Friday leveled at an esports icon while defending disparaging comments made about mental illness and depression by one of his streamers.

Chandler went off the rails and attacked Scott “SirScoots” Smith characterizing the former COO for Evil Geniuses as “kinda creepy” in relationship to comments Smith posted about Chandler’s response to an incident that involved Cinthya Alicea, aka CinCinBear, a 19-year old female streamer.

Attacked our org and esport because he didn’t like what Cin said on her stream 9 months ago. Shes a young female streamer on twitch with almost no connection to esports at all. Kinda creepy tbh. pic.twitter.com/FcuKC8eISG — Justin Chandler (@KOSDFF) February 2, 2018

Insinuating that a person considered to be one of the founding fathers of esports is somehow stalking a young woman crosses a line that absolutely could be damaging to Smith’s reputation and career. These types of comments have no place in esports and should be condemned–by everyone.

There have been many people denied jobs because of comments similar to one Chandler tweeted. At the very minimum, places of employment do background checks by searching for names on Google and if tweets such as this come up, red flags get raised, regardless if true or not. But how did we get here so fast?

The war of words that led up to the egregious tweet started when Chandler responded to an eight month old post by Smith.

The two got into an exchange with Smith asking why Chandler felt the need to respond to a post from eight months ago. Chandler responded with this tweet:

She actually stated she knew nothing about it before giving her opinion. Anyone that took what she said seriously after that just didn’t have anything else to tweet about. We don’t do “PR” statements. We are who we are. No one cared 2 days later cause it was just a smear campaign — Justin Chandler (@KOSDFF) January 31, 2018

Smith responded to Chandler in Chandler’s own words to let the team Kaliber owner know that his response to the hurtful comments made by his streamer were inadequate, without remorse, and lacks a critical understanding of the gaming space.

From Chandler’s TwitLonger:

Today one of our streamers, Cin, made a remark on twitch that has earned her some negative attention from other streamers and their fan bases. Cin said (Answering a question about rich people with depression) “Depression is stupid, if you’re privileged what do you have to be sad about.” Now this is obviously a joke and in no way aimed at people with clinical depression. Moreover once this was said she blocked the word in her chat and refrained from speaking about it. Which is the exact opposite behavior from someone who actually thinks depression is stupid and is ready to stand by it. Mind you this was one sentence she said on stream, not a rant or a prolonged discussion. This however was blood in the water to a small group of other female streamers to attack her on behalf of clinically depressed people everywhere. They accused her of hate speech, calling depressed people stupid, saying depression isn’t real and a litany of other wild accusations. Then attempted to persuade their followings to do the same. Don’t fall for this. Don’t be a tool for someone to smear another person over something ridiculous. It takes a super sensitive person to be offended by someone saying “depression is stupid if you’re rich”. Like how on earth can anything take that comment seriously enough to be angry. Don’t insult people with depression by defending them from a joke. My family has a history of depression. In some cases it was very severe. Seeing people use it as a platform for anything but awareness is unbecoming. I had to put this out there cause I understand how other influencers can warp stuff and I don’t want anyone being offended for no reason 🙂

You need an abacus to count the number of inaccuracies in Chandler’s TwitLonger. CinCinBear didn’t just make a remark or a single comment, she went on for the better part of 30 seconds telling her audience that “you’re f—— stupid” if you are rich and suffer from depression, “To me, like, I don’t understand depression, so. I think it is the stupidest thing in the world,” Alicea said on stream. “I don’t know, like, so many people that are so privileged have depression and I’m like what the F—- are you depressed about. Like, you have everything, but you’re depressed, you’re F—— stupid. I definitely don’t have depression. I am very fortunate to have what I have and I would never take it for granted.”

The fact that Chandler wanted to try to sweep these comments under the rug by saying she was just joking is perhaps the perfect irony–a joke.

Instead of asking the question about whether or not someone should be angry at CinCinBear’s comments on stream, the better question is, how does he not understand? Do rich people not lose loved ones, get sick, deal with pressure, and cope with all the other things people go through? They may have more material items than most, but to say because they have money they shouldn’t be depressed is an ignorant statement at the very least. And the ignorance didn’t stop there.

As the back and forth escalated between the two, the Team Kaliber owner attacked Smith on the grounds that Smith did not own a team with the implication that he hasn’t done much in esports. A foolish mistake. With just a simple google search you can find Smith’s laundry list of a resume.

Smith was one of the original professional Counter-Strike players at the age of 34 when he competed for Unitary Guerrilla Platoon. He was hired to run and then became the owner of GotFrag.tv, one of the first media sites created to cover esports, much like ESPN and traditional sports. After the stint in production with GotFrag, Smith became the COO of Evil Geniuses who has won over $16 million dollars in prize earnings. I think we found Smith’s “team.” Going back to his production roots after his time as COO for EG, Smith has directed multiple events and shows for ESL, FACEIT, Blizzard, and others.

However, his greatest achievement in esports may be the forming of the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA) which was instrumental in defending the player’s rights movement in the Professional Esports Association debacle, which ultimately led to the PEA’s dormant state.

While the exchange between Smith and Chandler may be TMZ cringe worthy at times, there is no doubt that Chandler simply doesn’t understand that there is zero defense regarding CinCinBear’s remarks about depression or attacking Smith. Smith, treats the gaming community like a father would his children, wants inclusiveness and for people to succeed. However, when malcontents do things that hurt the industry, they need to be told. Chandler needed to be told.

Yet like a child that doesn’t get it, Chandler threw a virtual tantrum. And since Chandler doesn’t understand he is 100 percent in the wrong here and has lashed out on numerous occasions, Smith went to a place where lessons can be taught at a heavy price–sponsors.

Smith reached out to Team Kaliber’s sponsors showing some of the tweets Chandler had made. And while there has been no official response from the sponsors regarding the incident, G FUEL, a company that creates energy drink type supplements offered up this response that was subsequently deleted.

However, G Fuel’s Social Media and Marketing employee Pat Curran commented using his personal Twitter account:

Move on, dude. It’s the internet. Kos said some words that you didn’t want to hear. You said some things he didn’t want to hear. You asked for a 3rd party’s take on the matter – And you received an impartial/passive/joking/non-serious one. Everyone has opinions – That’s life. — Pat Curran ? (@NobodyKnowsBest) February 2, 2018

And then out of left field another series of tweets from a G Fuel employee surfaced which by saying they are completely neutral seems to infer they actually do not comprehend the scope of what is happening.

Here is another @gfuel employee offering his amazing insight into the situation. https://t.co/nt0X0HuW2D — Scott Smith (@SirScoots) February 2, 2018

At this point it makes perfect sense as to why the two are partnered.

The reality here is that we are under a huge microscope and the world is watching. If our own can’t acknowledge that depression is real and empathize with the affliction, it alienates the thousands of people that suffer that are already here in the community and those that may have wanted to join. For some, it is something they don’t understand, but instead of making fun and making despicable comments, perhaps people should learning more about those that suffer.

* The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), “…estimates that in the United States, 16 million adults had at least one major depressive episode in 2012. That’s 6.9 percent of the population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. It is a leading cause of disability.”