Activision has removed the Call of Duty skin of FaZe Clan co-founder Nickmercs from the in-game store after reacting to the streamer’s comments on social media.
A skin that was available in both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 AND Call of Duty: Warzone, has been removed with immediate effect. It comes after Nickermercs tweeted response to an attack that took place at a pro-LGBT school board meeting that quickly escalated into violence. The meeting in question was to recognize June as School Pride Month.
Anti-LGBT protesters can be seen in the video, armed with picket signs and physically attacking caregivers. Nickmercs, whose real name is Nicholas Kolcheff, replied: “They should leave little kids alone. This is a real problem,” a tweet that caught the attention of high-profile members of the Call of Duty community and Activision itself.
This happened 4 blocks from my Overwatch League apartment. Americans are in a sad place right now. Let people love those they love and live your own life. https://t.co/iflQJ1xmgCJune 7, 2023
Official Call of Duty Twitter account issued a statement regarding the Nickmercs comment: “Due to recent events, we have removed the ‘NICKMERCS Operator’ bundle from the Modern Warfare II and Warzone store,” before continuing, “We are focused on celebrating PRIDE with our employees and our community.”
Nickmercs then responded to the stream (which has since been cropped by Twitter Dexerto) stating “I didn’t mean to upset anyone, I know I did. I don’t apologize for the tweet because I don’t think it’s a bad one.” He added that “I’m going to stick to what I said, I’m not going to delete the tweet because I hope people understand what I meant by that.”
For context, this isn’t the first time FaZe Clan members have been involved in controversy or trouble. In June last year, the group’s official Twitter account tweeted: “Happy Pride Month!” with the iconic eSports logo with a rainbow pattern. One of the team members at the time, FaZe Virus, replied, “To make it clear that I don’t support any kind of LGBTQ or anything like that, even if ‘FaZe’ does.” He left the group in January this year (via Kotaku).