He has been one of the biggest streamers on Twitch, however Counter-Strike: Global Offensive streamer Alexandre ‘Gaules’ Borba has been forced to give his “sincere apologies” after a section of his fan base terrorised pro players that he had accused of cheating.
Following Brazilian team MIBR’s shock defeat to underdogs Chaos, Gaules – who attracts hundreds of thousands of viewers to his CS:GO esports watch parties – accused the latter of cheating, in particularly two of its young stars Nathan ‘Leaf’ Orf and Erick ‘Xeppaa’ Bach. He resurfaced these claims a few days later. This caused supporters of the streamer and the Brazilian CS:GO community as a whole to launch a barrage of hateful messages towards the two Chaos players, including in some cases death threats.
This shocked the majority of the CS:GO scene, who denounced Gaules and the Brazilian fans responsible. Gaules has until now stood by the events of the last few weeks, with many in the Brazilian community alleging that outside scrutiny of their actions was due to racism.
However, the Twitch streamer yesterday released a statement that (sort of) apologised for the fallout his remarks have caused and has told his following to “take a stand” against any future threats so that Brazil can “positively have a place within the international community.”
While Gaules never directly apologises for his specific remarks, he “reinforces” that his community should “never, under any circumstances, have any kind of behaviour towards someone that we would not like to receive.”
Minhas sinceras desculpas. Espero que possamos melhorar juntos nossa comunidade.
My sincere apologies. I hope we can improve our community together. pic.twitter.com/ixZblpdagQ
— Gaules (@Gaules) July 13, 2020
While a direct and concrete apology to the Chaos players may be lacking, at least Gaules has acknowledged his influence over such a large number of passionate fans and has sought to educate them moving forward.
In the last 30 days, Gaules has been the most watched streamer on Twitch by a significant margin, boasting over 14 million hours of content watched according to Esports Charts Pro.
