TSM’s Fortnite player Anthony “ZexRow” Colandro was fined one month’s salary on Friday in response to his disrespectful comments after winning the Week 1 championship in the Ninja Battles Fortnite series a day earlier.
The pro player won the $25,000 prize pool with Jonathan “Calc” Weber and teammate Mack “MackWood” Aesoph on Thursday. In a post-match interview after winning the match, ZexRow gave the statement, “Hopefully I do well in solos,” ZexRow said. “Last FNCS didn’t go too well, but I just made more than top nine in it. So everyone that didn’t place in the top 10 can ****** my *******. They’re ****** ******. I don’t know why they talk ******. They’re actually also ******* and braindead. That’s all I’m saying.”
TSM chief executive officer Andy Dinh wrote on the team’s website, “We are extremely disappointed in the comments made by Anthony ‘ZexRow’ Colandro and take this matter very seriously. Effective immediately, he has been fined one month’s salary. His behaviour was absolutely inappropriate and does not represent the values of TSM or our brand partners.
“The Fortnite community is important to us at TSM and is made up of younger players. We know the impact words and actions have, and it is important to make sure that kids see and know that acting like this is not OK. For this reason, we are donating the amount of Zexrow’s fine to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, an organization that does amazing work for young people all over the country.”
In response to the whole controversy, ZexRow wrote an apology letter stating, “I was interviewed and said very very distasteful things, it even would be distasteful to say on my own stream but even more so after winning a tournament and on the Ninja broadcast. I want to directly apologize to Ninja and the tournament organizers for overshadowing what otherwise was a great tournament that was fun to play in with my immature actions.
“I’m also sorry to TSM and my fans for disappointing you guys, I should live up to the standards of a professional and at that moment I didn’t. This is something that I will take some time to reflect on to improve my future behaviour.”
The punishment given to the player by the organisation gave a clear reply to the fans and other players. Any kind of foul and disrespectful language will not be tolerated by them.
