M80 Overwatch team (temporarily) disbands amid alleged racial remarks

The Overwatch competitive scene is in turmoil tonight after the announcement that the M80 Overwatch team has disbanded. Announced only one day ago, the reason for its closure deals with the retirement and release of two core roster members, respectively. In the case of the latter, a number of Discord screenshots taken during the 2023 Overwatch World Cup were leaked showing now-former M80 player Samuel "s9mm" Santos and former Overwatch League players Christian "Ojee" Han and Michael "mikeyy" Konicki allegedly using abhorrent racial slurs numerous times.

The player in question retiring from M80 is another former Toronto Defiant member, Colin "Coluge" Arai. He cites "a lack of passion and drive to compete for now" as the main reason. Meanwhile, M80 Overwatch announced earlier today--before announcing the disbanding of the team--that s9mm was released, saying "recent information has come to light that does not align with our team values."

Editor's update, 12:32 a.m. EST 3/2/24: Winthrop University esports announced via social media that Samuel "s9mm" Santos is now on indefinite suspension from its Overwatch 2 team.

Editor's update, 1:58 p.m. EST 3/2/24: Well, nevermind that whole 'disbanding' thing, as M80 just announced their all-new roster for OWCS. Will it last more than a day? WHO KNOWS?

Editor's update, 8:40 p.m. EST 3/7/24: s9mm has responded to the allegations with a confirmation and fairly week apology for "things I have said in the past":

The above leaks that led to the disbanding of M80 Overwatch begins with the Twitter personality @ViewerOW receiving a number of Discord screenshots from a burner account. The screens in question depict Ojee, S9mm, and Mikeyy all allegedly using racist remarks across a wide stretch of time. According to Viewer, the screens were found by french Overwatch World Cup players after Ojee allegedly left his computer open last year.

Viewer goes on to confirm the validity of the posts, saying he spoke to french players that confirmed the remarks. They also showed screens of their own discussion with s9mm, asking the player if said screens were real. According to Viewer, "s9mm was 100 percent truthful and honest about what he had done. He stated that he said it while quoting someone else he had met earlier in the day, and that he was deeply regretful that he said such a thing."

However, the number of days of and timeframe of the alleged comments seems to blow up s9mm's excuse of "repeating back something heard one time." As of this writing, s9mm's Twitter account is still active but has not responded to the allegations or his release. Meanwhile, the Twitter accounts of Ojee and Mikeyy are long gone.

Three hours after announcing the release of s9mm from M80 Overwatch, the team announced its plans to disband.

In response to the announcement from M80 Overwatch, a number of other teams are now scrambling to either grab players or fill roles. This includes YFP Overwatch losing enough players to no longer be eligible for competition.

With M90 Overwatch gone, where does that leave s9mm, Ojee and Mikeyy? As of this writing, s9mm is still a member of Winthrop University's Overwatch team. Winthrop is a public university in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Meanwhile, Ojee has not been seen since playing for the NYXL in 2023. As for Mikeyy, he was last seen on the Overwatch team of Northwood University, private university located in Midland, Michigan. However, this isn't the only alleged scandal involving Mikeyy in the last few years.

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