The National Committees for the Overwatch World Cup have been announced, with a general manager, coach and community lead having been selected for each competing nation.
However, one popular Danish streamer is unhappy with the announcement that a little known streamer, Lene “Xperiana” Gaardmand, has been selected as Denmark’s community lead.
Daniel “dafran” Francesca has accused organisers of rigging the vote folllowing the announcement, questioning how somebody with 500 Twitch followers and 200 Twitter followers could have beaten him.
Speaking via Twitter, Dafran wrote:
“Congrats to the person who won the danish community lead but it is obviously rigged as f**k, why involve me in the vote then”
It does raise some concerns. The position was decided by a fan vote, which all Overwatch players were permitted to vote in.
Given Dafran currently has more than 226,000 Twitch followers and a 20,000-strong Twitter following, it seems unlikely that he wasn’t Denmark’s top pick.
An alternative explanation
Rather than rigging the vote, it seems likely that Blizzard excluded Dafran. Rules state that committee members must hold a Blizzard account in high standing.
Dafran, of course, doesn’t. The controversial streamer received a ban five days before voting closed for abusing an exploit which allowed players to resurrect faster by leaving the game and immediately rejoining.
Dafran also received multiple reports from other players leading up to the incident and was also reportedly warned by Blizzard that further abuses would result in a ban.
Xperiana has previously begged Blizzard not to let “toxic people like this [Dafran] to be the frontperson for our communities at the World Cup”.
This wasn’t the first time that Dafran had been punished by Blizzard. The streamer was previously banned from competing in sanctioned events for the entirety of season five. Likewise, he was not allowed to take part in the contenders season zero and one in the lead up to the Overwatch League.
Frederik “Huggos” Kragh Christensen was selected as Denmark’s general manager. Martin “Mono” Madsen will fill the role of coach. The full list can be viewed here.