Online gaming is a fun place where entertainment and joy can be found in equal measures. But like anything that’s good in life, there are always some people who like to ruin it for everyone else. In the case of gaming, it’s the cesspool of racist/sexist/any bad thing ending in “ist” online trolls who like to pop in and just make life unpleasant, regardless if you’re a newcomer or a professional gamer.
Esports pro and one of world’s best Overwatch players, Jong-ryeol “Saebyeolbe” Park, recently came up against a racist troll during a recent streaming session on Twitch. But rather than lose it or say something awful in reply and tank his career in seconds, he dealt with it in the classiest, on-brand way possible.
The world always needs more heroes.
This troll kept spamming Saebyeolbe with friend requests using a gamer handle that contained slurs and horrible threats. Normally the streamer can shut this down but it sadly wasn’t an option in this case.
Now Saebyeolbe is an impossibly nice guy who is as pleasant as he is good at Overwatch. Just to show how cool he is, during every pro league match he plays with a photo of his wife next to his PC because he misses her and she is his “good luck charm”.
Since he couldn’t boot the troll from his stream and he’s too much of a nice guy to get into a pointless argument, Saebyeolbe’s solution was to grab his own feed from his live camera, exaggerated the feed’s dimensions, and covered up the troll’s racist messages.
— saebyeolbe (@saebyeolbe) March 30, 2019
It was the perfect way to deal with a troll peacefully and the moment was topped with Saebyeolbe’s happy declaration of “Let’s go, guys! Don’t care about that, just watch my face, wheeeee!”
As for the troll, well, they realised that they’ve been outsmarted big time and quietly gave up with their tail between their legs not long after Saebyeolbe’s little trick.
Let’s give it up for Saebyeolbe, who can now add the titled of “troll blocking MacGyver” alongside great Overwatch player and a loving husband.