SF Shock's ANS apologises for homophobic remarks following All-Stars event

Overwatch League's All-Star events are meant as a celebration of hard-working players that have excelled during a grueling season that was massively hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, as this year introduced prize pools to the competitions, some players might have taken it too seriously.

Seonchang "ANS" Lee, a South Korean prodigy that had to step up in a big way after the retirement of Jay "Sinatraa" Won from Overwatch, filled his spot with aplomb, with the San Francisco Shock hitscan player being touted as the rookie of the year.

ANS playing for Blossom back in Korea (Photo: Liquipedia)

His quality playing heroes like Widowmaker, Ashe, Tracer, and McCree earned him a spot on the Asian side of the OWL All-Star events, which took place on the 26th of September, with ANS competing in the Widowmaker 1v1 tournament.
The event, a first-to-five kills competition, featured a prize of $15,000 for the winner, unlike previous years, with the Shock starlet making it all the way to the finals against Shanghai Dragons' Bae "Diem" Min-seong.

It was a competitive affair, as both players looked to come out on top, so much so, plenty of fans that tuned in found the finals boring and lacking excitement as neither would risk a positional error, leading to minutes upon minutes of downtime.

With the finals set as a first-to-nine, both players where 30 minutes in with 5-5 on the scoreboard. Everyone, from casters to fans, to the players themselves, expressed how "tired" they felt of the entire ordeal, with ANS deciding to stop playing his best game, resulting in a swift 9-5 victory for Diem.

Soon after, the Shock DPS received criticism for his performance in the finals, using homophobic remarks to express himself while on stream.

"If we had a rematch, I might still lose to Diem again. But even if I win in a rematch... I mean, I know all them gays on the forums are listening. If I win they'll be like 'he played so gay does the win even count'", he said, according to a translation provided by prominent Overwatch community member, Gatamchun.

ANS would later tweet out an apology, claiming he had used a poor choice of words as he tried to make his point. Instead of "gay", he meant to say "goat," according to him.

I think I used the word gay in the wrong context. I was going to say goat, but I think the choice of words I made was wrong.
Also, I would like to apologize for not properly participating in the 1:1 event match.

— ANS (@ansansniper__) September 26, 2020

"I think I used the word gay in the wrong context. I was going to say goat, but I think the choice of words I made was wrong."

• Read more: Overwatch League reveals 2020 All-Star skins featuring D.Va and Reinhardt

It's hard to picture how he could've miscommunicated while speaking in his native language, but as it stands, the San Francisco Shock has yet to issue a statement regarding this topic.