Georgia State University investigating CS2 squad for transphobic comments on PRACC.com

Jeffrey Moore contributed to this report.

On October 7th, Riley "Reef" Ruiz of GIRLYPOPS shared a post on X showing transphobic comments directed at her team by another team named "gsu black" on the PRACC.com platform. The comment left by "gsu black" called the GIRLYPOPS lineup "5/5 tranny demons", using an outdated and offensive term for transgender individuals.

Dust2.us understands that the "gsu black" team on the PRACC.com platform is not officially affiliated with Georgia State University, however multiple players attend the university while the unofficial "GSU Black" club seemingly has a view on becoming an officially recognized roster of the college.

It is unknown which player of the unofficial GSU Black team made the transphobic comment, however Reef shared alleged Discord messages with Emerson "catastrophe" Boyett, so-called captain and founder of the Counter-Strike team, who engaged in further transphobic abuse, saying there wasn't "one actual women on yalls team," and that the squad were "a male team pretending to be a transgender team," while also advertising openings on the team via @gsupantherscs on Instagram.

Dust2.us reached out to Emerson Boyett about these comments and his team's relationship with Georgia State University. Boyett was evasive in comments to Dust2.us, refusing to comment on his alleged transphobic comments while also being unwilling to confirm the club's relationship with Georgia State University, instead going on a long string of messages advertising the club and laying out his ambitions for GSU Black.

While GSU Black appears to be an unofficial "pet project" of Boyett, Georgia State University appears to be taking the matter seriously. In a comment to Dust2.us, Georgia State University Esports Program Director Lucas Bailey told the publication:

The team calling themselves “GSU Black” is not an officially recognized varsity esports team or registered student organization at Georgia State University. It is not endorsed by Georgia State University, nor was it officially representing Georgia State University when those comments were made. The comments were not made on a platform moderated or controlled by Georgia State University or as part of a Georgia State University-sanctioned event. Such behavior does not align with our institutional values and we are actively reviewing the matter.

Georgia State University is committed to protecting the rights of all members of our community and strives to provide an inclusive and respectful environment where everyone is welcome and can succeed. Whenever we become aware of a potential violation of the Student Code of Conduct we act swiftly to investigate the matter and take appropriate action. The Code is available online at codeofconduct.gsu.edu. We encourage everyone to report concerns to the Office of the Dean of Students, and to report any allegations of discrimination or harassment to the Office of Equity and Civil Right Compliance at ecrc.gsu.edu.

Outside of the comments themselves the incident between GIRLYPOPS and "gsu black" also demonstrate potential shortfalls on how the popular PRACC.com platform handles instances of abuse and offensive comments directed at teams. In Reef's initial screenshot, former pro and employee of Pracc.com, Christian "crisby" Schmitt, is seen explaining that PRACC.com is unable to remove the comment manually while teams are unable to remove comments on their own profiles unless they sign up for a paid team account.

This presents a serious issue for marginalized communities in the esports space as the pay walling of moderation tools has the potential of creating a hostile environment and disincentivizing teams from using the PRACC.com platform. Dust2.us reached out to PRACC.com for comment on the pay walling of moderation tools and the incident involving GIRLYPOPS, with a PRACC.com representative telling Dust2.us, "You will get no comments from us since your opinion is already set" not responding to a request for clarification.

Dust2.us also reached out to crisby for comment, however he did not respond ahead of publication.