Call of Duty removes Nickmercs' Operator Bundle from Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone, Dr DisRespect, FaZe Rain, and more respond

On June 9, 2023, Call of Duty officially announced that it had removed popular Twitch streamer Nicholas "Nickmercs'" Operator bundle from Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone. The situation was first reported by prominent Call of Duty personality @charlieINTEL, who claimed that the content creator's skins were not available in the store:

A few hours later, the Activision-developed game confirmed that Nickmercs' content had been removed due to his controversial comments about the LGBTQ+ community and Pride Month.

Call of Duty's announcement tweet reads:

"Due to recent events, we have removed the “NICKMERCS Operator” bundle from the Modern Warfare II and Warzone store. We are focused on celebrating PRIDE with our employees and our community."

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"Who’s running Call of Duty PR and Marketing now?" - Streaming community reacts to Call of Duty removing Nickmercs' content amidst the latter's controversy

For context, Nickmercs made headlines on June 8, 2023, when he shared his thoughts on a recent event in California in which anti-LGBTQIA+ protestors assaulted demonstrators. Responding to this situation, the streamer wrote:

The FaZe Clan co-owner addressed the debacle during a livestream on June 8, 2023, and doubled down on his sentiments. He claimed that the video "bothered him" and elaborated:

"So, the video bothered me. I just don't think it's any place for a teacher or a school, I don't think it's the place to speak about things like that. And it's not that I think it shouldn't be spoken about. If that's what you got from that Tweet, you're just wrong. I don't have any quarrels with anybody here, I don't have any quarrel with people on the internet."

The following day (June 9, 2023), Call of Duty announced that the Detroit-born personality's in-game bundle had been removed. As expected, the revelation went viral, eliciting responses from numerous prominent personalities.

YouTube streamer Herschel "Guy," popularly known as "Dr DisRespect," wondered who was in charge of the first-person shooter's public relations and marketing. He went on to call them "pathetic":

Fellow FaZe Clan member Nordan "FaZe Rain" opined on the situation, saying:

Contentious Kick streamer Heelmike also chimed in and tweeted:

Not all responses were against Call of Duty's decision to remove Nickmercs from the game, as Twitter user @ChadVelezis commented:

Here are some more pertinent reactions:

Reddit community on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit also shared their thoughts on the situation. Here's what they had to say:

While some Redditors claimed that Activision was taking the "moral high ground" in the controversy, others wondered whether Nickmercs would apologize for his contentious remarks.