As many looked into the matter, it became clear that while “GSU Black” isn’t officially affiliated with any institution, most of their players are enrolled at Georgia State University with hopes to become officially recognised as the college’s roster. While it has not been revealed which team member carried out the abuse, screenshots were also shared showing the “GSU Black” captain, Emerson "catastrophe" Boyett, furthering the abuse when asked to keep a check on his teammates.
What did the university say?
Since the incident was brought to light, dust2 (an extension of HLTV) reached out to Georgia State University Esports Program Director Lucas Bailey for a comment and she said:
“The team calling themselves “GSU Black” is not an officially recognized varsity esports team or registered student organization at Georgia State University. It is not endorsed by Georgia State University, nor was it officially representing Georgia State University when those comments were made. The comments were not made on a platform moderated or controlled by Georgia State University or as part of a Georgia State University-sanctioned event. Such behavior does not align with our institutional values and we are actively reviewing the matter.
Georgia State University is committed to protecting the rights of all members of our community and strives to provide an inclusive and respectful environment where everyone is welcome and can succeed. Whenever we become aware of a potential violation of the Student Code of Conduct we act swiftly to investigate the matter and take appropriate action. The Code is available online at codeofconduct.gsu.edu. We encourage everyone to report concerns to the Office of the Dean of Students, and to report any allegations of discrimination or harassment to the Office of Equity and Civil Right Compliance at ecrc.gsu.edu.”
A pressing matter going forward
While Georgia State University is taking the matter seriously, the incident highlights a general problem with how moderation works on PRACC.com. In the shared screenshots, former pro and employee of Pracc.com, Christian "crisby" Schmitt, is seen explaining that PRACC.com is unable to remove the comment manually while teams are unable to remove comments on their own profiles unless they sign up for a paid team account.
Such a poorly designed system, if more people were to learn about it, can become a nightmare for marginalized communities as players can engage in verbal abuse with little to no consequences due to proper content moderation being locked behind a paywall.
