UK Rainbow Six Siege caster Emi ‘Fluke’ Donaldson has spoken out about online abuse she received on Twitch chat during the Siege Invitational (SI) today.
Last year Emi became seemingly the first openly transgender caster to cast a tier-one esports major and, while she has had some solid support from people within Siege esports, there are also those that have made hateful, toxic and transphobic comments towards her.
“Obiously it’s my first Siege Invitational, it’s a day of huge celebration and it’s an honour to be here after the years I’ve loved this game,” she said. “It’s been marred by the toxicity that’s come through and I want to say thank you to the people who’ve stood up for me.
“I expect to see horrible things Twitch chat says, and I shouldn’t have to. I want to highlight to anyone out there who’s LGBTQ+, to not let this get to you too much. I may be the first doing this sort of event, but I know I’m the first of many, and I’m gonna be here tomorrow, and every fucking day of SI. Then the rest of the year doing Siege events.
“Yes there are dickheads out there, but there’s a huge amount of love and support, and it’s gonna grow. So if you’re out there and you feel like chat is beating you down, try not to let it get to you. Keep grinding. I’m here off my own merit, regardless of what the fuckers are saying, so I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
Emi also spoke about the challenge the stream moderators will have in striking the balance between letting memes get through into Twitch chat, but also clamping down on the hate she’s received.
“Good luck mod squad lol,” she added.
Emi is one of several UK casters at the 2021 Siege Invitational, with others including Dezachu, AceOfPyrite, Xrtroika, Demo and Kixstar.
There are more and more initiatives around diversity emerging in esports. The British Esports Association has its Women in Esports campaign, there are organisations like Women in Games, FemaleLegends, Black Girl Gamers, AnyKey, eTeam Brit and more pushing for greater inclusion within the space.
In other news around representation and diversity within Siege, earlier this year the Rainbow Six community reacted to the first openly gay operator, Flores.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
