Harassed Female Overwatch Player Revealed To Be A Hoax In Order To Push An Alleged “Social Experiment”

Earlier this week we reported on how the first female Overwatch Contender player suffered so much harassment and threats of doxxing that she eventually had to quit before her first match.

Following her quitting, many questions were raised about the Overwatch player Ellie. Well, today it was revealed that she may not have been real, sorta.

Regarding Ellie:

– Ellie has said in private messages to teammates in the last hour confirming she has not been the one playing, she is a 17-year old girl but is 'not good' at OW, no Second Wind players/mgmt knew
– Blizzard is currently holding a meeting with SW players/mgmt

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 4, 2019

Punisher, the player assumed to have played as Ellie, is just another NA ladder player. Not a pro smurf or semipro. It is also possible more than one person played under her name.

Correction: The meeting between Blizzard and SW has not yet occurred, will happen in the next hour.

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 4, 2019

Catsui tells me over the phone that Punisher also proposed to her a similar 'social experiment' as his playing through/with Ellie, and she says that he apparently had asked several women in the Overwatch community the same.

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 5, 2019

Yes in a complex twist of events it turns out that Ellie may have been a idiotic “social experiment” in some regards. Performed by a player named Punisher and at least one other player who actually played while the voice of Ellie was provided by a 17-year-old girl who said she “isn’t good at the game.”

This information followed a meeting that the team she signed up with, Second Wind had with Overwatch developer Blizzard to confirm her identity. Blizzard confirmed that Ellie was indeed a multiuser account that was later confirmed by Overwatch news twitter user Slasher.

This was also confirmed by Second Wind themselves.

This news has made the situation immensely more muddied. On one hand, those that found the need to harass Ellie now feel justified in their horrid actions, and players who have been trying to make the competitive gaming scene more viable and friendly to female gamers have found this “social Experiment” to be a disgusting thing.

The stuff with Ellie in Overwatch has left a sour, sour taste in my mouth.

"Social experiment." What? Hey, bud. I just dropped an apple. Gravity is real.

Sexism in esports is not something that's swept under the rug. It's not subtle. It's horrifyingly open and unafraid.

— Cian Maher (@cianmaher0) January 4, 2019

Toxicity in gaming/Esports is real and despite what Punisher and pals thought they were doing, they have set the progress that female gamers have made, back. Terrible people now believe they were right to do what they did, it is confusing just who exactly this “experiment” helped.

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