Team Liquid‘s Rupal “Rupal” Zaman was recently barred from trialing for the United States’ Overwatch World Cup team after he used a racial slur during a scrim. In response, Team Liquid Co-CEO Steve Arhancet posted a lengthy tweet that has led to the organization getting roasted once again.
On X (formerly Twitter), the USA team wrote: “That player is no longer being considered for our 2026 roster. We maintain a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior. Unity and equality are core principles of our team, and we are committed to upholding those values.”
Trials are continuing as usual on March 18th and 19th ahead of the OWWC at BlizzCon 2026.
Liquid Steve Writes Massive Wall of a Tweet About Racial Slurs
Rupal was a favorite for one of the US OWWC team’s support roles when he used the “n-word” on stream. This ended his trial run and hopes of appearing at the Overwatch World Cup.
In response to the situation, Rupal was dropped from Team Liquid. Steve then shared a long post on the matter. He called the slur “anti-black” and apologized to the black community.
“I want to be unequivocal in condemning the language he used. There is no place for it in our game, in our community, or in this organization. […] When we bring a player into Team Liquid, our expectation is that they represent themselves and us at the highest levels of professionalism; on stage, online, and in every space where they carry our name,” Steve stated.
According to Steve, players go through media, communication, and sensitivity training when they are signed to Team Liquid. However, this was “not enough” to stop this incident. Going forward, Steve said Team Liquid will be reviewing its onboarding and retraining process.
“What happened today was wrong, and we felt we owed you a clear response,” he concluded. “We also recognize that Rupal is a leader in NA’s Overwatch scene, but he is also a young person who made a serious mistake in a very public way. We hope this becomes a moment of genuine reflection and growth for him. Not the end of his story, but a turning point in it. We wish him well.”
In response to being let go from Team Liquid, Rupal said he had “no excuses” for what he did. He explained that he was raised in a Bengali household in America, causing him to experience racism.
“I should know that using such offensive language is terrible and not something that should be said so casually. It’s a horrendous mistake on my part. I don’t consider myself a hateful person, and always enjoy meeting new people regardless of their background,” he wrote.
“Sorry to all who supported me. I take responsibility for my mistakes and will go on a break to reflect and work on myself.”
I bet you can guess the response to the situation. Was it:
- The esports community condemned Rupal’s actions and said they want him to do better in the future
- The esports community said that the slur wasn’t even offensive and Rupal did nothing wrong. Only people with anime profile pictures care, and Team Liquid are hypocrites for drawing the line at racial slurs but accepting money from Saudi Arabia
If you guessed the first one, you’ve never been online in your life. The answer was #2, ding, ding, ding! if you guessed correctly, congratulations, you are as chronically online as me and the rest of us!
At this point, I’m sorta over the Team Liquid hate.
Earlier this week, Team Liquid was getting mocked by the Counter-Strike 2 community for telling a hater to read up on World War II after he compared one of their players to Hitler. I think the tweet did make for some funny copypasta down the line. Anyway, the CS2 fans felt that Team Liquid was being performative by condemning the Hitler comparison while having an Israeli player on their team in the past and competing in events funded by Saudi Arabian companies.
I could get behind some of the points to an extent. But now I am just growing tired of it. Give it a rest already.
I actually think Steve’s response was fine. He was not apologizing to the esports community at large. He was apologizing to black fans and community members. Only they can decide if this is offensive or not. So no, the random people on X saying that it’s “white people getting offended on black people’s behalf” and reassuring Rupal that he did nothing wrong don’t actually get to decide if the “n-word” is upsetting to hear during a scrim or not.
Continuing this narrative about Team Liquid accepting money from Saudi Arabia is also pretty tired. The esports industry is dead. All organizations run in the red. For them to even survive, they practically need to try to get that prize money at the Esports World Cup. They practically need to accept Saudi Arabia’s cash offer to participate in the Nations Cup.
Don’t y’all buy iPhones, shop on Amazon, and use Waze? Okay, well you are participating in things that you probably vocally claim you’re against as well. It’s sort of never-ending if you truly want to get rid of everything that’s ever been associated with billionaires, sweatshops, Israeli tech companies, the Epstein Files, and anti-LGBTQ+ groups.
It doesn’t make it right, but it’s just the way it is, unfortunately.
I think we can be critical of Team Liquid. I’m not saying we can’t. But I think it’s just getting a bit too performative. You can’t claim that the “n-word” is not anti-black and then claim you are truly upset by Team Liquid’s involvement in the Esports World Cup in the same sentence. You can’t be for real. If so, you’re a hypocrite, too. So you’re even.
C’mon guys, read a book about it. Or however the copypasta goes.