Overwatch pro Matt 'Dellor' Vaughn torpedoes career with racist rant on Twitch stream

Professional Overwatch player Matt 'Dellor' Vaughn's eSports career has come to end after he was dropped by his team following a vulgar, racist rant he made during a livestream.

The 28-year-old pro gamer was playing a ranked game of Blizzard's hit shooter Overwatch on Saturday (22 April) when his opponent, playing as Widowmaker, eliminated him. He then accused that player of cheating.

Vaughn then proceeded to scream "n****r" repeatedly for approximately 30 seconds as his teammates listened. One of his Twitch followers captured the shocking incident and reported him to Toronto eSports.

The clip was posted posted to YouTube. Warning: the video contains the uncensored language Vaughn used.

Toronto eSports later fired Vaughn citing "breach of contract". Vaughn's Twitch channel has been closed as well due to violation of the streaming service's terms of service.

"The circumstances of the dismissal relate to an incident where Dellor used abusive and discriminatory racial language while streaming," the organisation said.

Toronto eSports President Ryan Pallett said in a statement: "Toronto Esports is an organisation built on inclusivity, and we have always had a zero-tolerance policy for any forms of discrimination. Immediately upon learning of the incident, the player was interviewed, admitted to the offence, and was notified that his contract with the organisation was being terminated."

Vaughn responded to the incident on Twitter saying he is "done with eSports and won't be returning".

He also offered an apology on TwitLonger, saying he "f**ked up and deserved to be dropped from Toronto eSports."

"I won't try to argue or make an excuse, I don't have any," he wrote. "I just want people to know what happened. I was having a really bad day. Didn't get much sleep, Twitch wouldn't work for 2 hours after I woke up, and once it finally did, my internet was lagging. So I was pretty upset."

He also blamed his opponent's Widowmaker who he claims was "blatantly cheating".

"I've dealt with cheaters before, but with him and his entire team, and my entire team start talking sh*t, it gets to me. I snapped. This isn't the first time this has happened. I have anger problems.

"The only thing I can say is that despite be using that word, I am not a racist. I was extremely upset, and I was trying to make the person I was angry with upset as well, and so I said the most offensive thing that came to mind."

"I f**ked up, I have no excuse," he continued. "Toronto Esports is a great organisation and I am sorry to them for tarnishing their name. I've put my entire life into gaming/esports and this has been a massive wake up call."

In recent years, eSports has grown into a popular, mainstream and increasingly lucrative million-dollar industry, leading many developers, eSports teams and broadcasters to take a more aggressive stance on cheating, discrimination, fraud and other harmful activities.