A couple of UK Call of Duty personalities made headlines at the $200,000 Optic Kickoff Warzone tournament this week – for very different reasons.
Tommey wins trios tournament, seeks new esports org
UK Warzone player and streamer Tommey won the Optic Kickoff Trios tournament with his US teammates HusKerrs and zSmit.
They took the $40,000 first place prize, and finished ahead of Team JoeWo and Team Biffle.
The news came just over a week after Tommey announced his new team.
Tommey also added: “I would love to be back on an [esports] organisation and representing.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had somewhere to call home and want that to change. If any teams are looking for a content creator and competitor, let me know.”
In the Solo Yolo part of the Optic Kickoff tournament, Tommey also picked up a win, but it was Skullface, the World Series of Warzone London Solo Yolo winner, who took first place.
The news comes ahead of a $15,000 HusKerrs Warzone Invitational, which Tommey’s team are also competing in.
An all UK-team featuring Jukeyz, Fifakill and Lenun finished fifth in the Optic trios tournament. Speaking of Jukeyz…
Jukeyz banned for two months after watching model on stream
While Tommey’s sights are set on an esports organisation to call home, fellow UK Warzone player and streamer Jukeyz had his eyes set on something else entirely during the Optic Kickoff tournament.
He was caught watching Novaruu, a model wearing a skimpy Christmas outfit, mid-broadcast.
“I have no words for this, I was just trying to hit a regain, sorry,” Jukeyz said.
Novaruu also joked in response to the clip, saying: “Look mom, I’m on TV! Bro actually got caught in 4K, this is insane.”
However, the situation developed from lighthearted to more serious, as Activision banned Jukeyz from competing in tournaments for ‘at least two months’, according to the UK streamer.
“Just got banned for competing in Activision-ran tournaments for at least two months for what happened yesterday, for real.”
Jukeyz
“It wasn’t intentional at all, I don’t know what to do or say – I wonder if I can appeal it. Fingers crossed it gets reverted. I’ll never do it again.”
Jukeyz also said he was ‘truly devastated’ about it.
The news comes after Jukeyz left the London Royal Ravens earlier this year, before the Ravens dropped its London branding to become the Carolina Royal Ravens.
Twitch in sexual content policy u-turn
The news comes as livestreaming platform Twitch rolled back changes to its sexual content policy, including real and fictional nudity.
There has been a recent trend known as the ‘topless meta’, where some streamers were broadcasting themselves seemingly naked, but the camera positioning cutting off just below their shoulders.
Some were frustrated with the new meta:
Twitch published an update to its Sexual Content Policy on December 13th 2023, and today (December 15th) rolled back these changes.
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said in a blog post: “Our primary goal in making these updates was to make our guidelines easier to understand and enforce. Part of this update included changes to how we treat fictionalised nudity.
“For years, through UserVoice and in conversations, we heard from artists that our content policies were limiting. In making this update, we were trying to be responsive to these requests and allow the thriving artist community on Twitch to utilise the human form in their art.
“Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won’t be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium. This restriction does not apply to Mature-rated games.”
Dan Clancy, Twitch
“First, we want to make clear that some streamers, in response to this update, created content that was in violation of our new policy. We’ve worked quickly to remove that content and issue channel enforcements.
“However, there also was a great deal of new content that was allowed under the updated policy. Much of the content created has been met with community concern. These are concerns we share. Upon reflection, we have decided that we went too far with this change. Digital depictions of nudity present a unique challenge – AI can be used to create realistic images, and it can be hard to distinguish between digital art and photography.
“So, effective today, we are rolling back the artistic nudity changes. Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won’t be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium. This restriction does not apply to Mature-rated games.
“We are in the process of pushing out updates to our Community Guidelines that reflect this change. While I wish we would have predicted this outcome, part of our job is to make adjustments that serve the community. I apologise for the confusion that this update has caused.”
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.
