Overwatch Ellie Impostor Controversy

Overview

Overwatch Ellie Impostor Controversy refers to an online controversy surrounding Overwatch player Ellie briefly joining and subsequently leaving professional Overwatch team Second Wind. Initially thought to be the first female to join a North American Overwatch Contenders team, Ellie was soon discovered to be a male player who pretended to be female for the sake of a "social experiment".

Background

On June 13th, 2018, Ellie#11327^[1] Battle.net account was created. Following several months of irregular playing activity, the owner of the account reached top-four ranking on the North American Overwatch server on December 17th, 2018^[2]. On the same day, Twitter account @ellie_ow^[3] was created. On high-level Twitch streams where Ellie appeared during ranked matchmaking, the player was identified to be female via voice chat^[4].

On December 21st, 2018, Overwatch team Second Wind announced^[5] that Ellie was joining their roster, making her the first female to compete in the North American division of Overwatch Contenders. On Reddit^[6], Second Wind manager Justin Hughes stated that "[Ellie] has rather flexible in hero pool, has the raw comp queue stats that fit our scouting requirements, and has played with our players before giving them synergy". The full name of the new player was not disclosed.

Following the announcement, several Overwatch community members questioned Ellie's skill and identity, as well as the seemingly hasty decision to sign up an unknown player to a team competing at a high level. On December 23rd, 2018, Ellie tweeted^[7] a screenshot taken from a Discord conversation in which one player was calling for "doxxing" Ellie in order to reveal her true identity.

On December 28th, 2018, Ellie broadcasted a Twitch stream to dispel rumors surrounding her identity. The recordings of the stream has since been deleted, however, according to a popular Reddit post^[8], Ellie's performance during the stream was considered lacking. Twitch streamer Dafran speculated that the person playing on the account might not be the same person who communicated in voice chat.

On January 2nd, 2019, Second Wind announced^[9] that Ellie made a decision to step down from the team "due to some unforeseen reactions". In a series of tweets, Second Wind manager accused^[10] Overwatch community of being unable of "viewing a player just as a player".

The controversy has been covered by several news outlets, including Kotaku^[11] and PC Gamer^[12].

Notable Developments

On January 4th, Twitch streamer Aspen revealed that the person playing on the Ellie account was NA top 500 player nicknamed Punisher.

Ellie is not Ellie. The whole situation was meant to be, in a way, a social experiment. Ellie is actually Punisher, he told me yesterday. He did this for a social experiment thing and did not expect it to get out of hand.

The rumor was confirmed in a series of tweets^[13] posted by notable Overwatch community figure Slasher.

Punisher, seen in a Battlenet conversation under Ellie, uses his 'egirl smurf' to grief OWL and other top players.

On the same day Overwatch player Coluge, who was released from the Second Wind roster several days prior to Ellie joining the team, also claimed^[14][15] playing on Ellie's account.

On the same day, Second Wind released a statement^[16] writing that the organization was unaware that person playing on the account was not who they claimed to be. On January 6th, 2019, Overwatch eSports spokesman provided a brief statement^[17] on the situation.

On January 4th, 2019, Redditor^[8] Brandis_ recreated a timeline of events related to the controversy.

Search Interest

External References