Among the notable names in professional eSports in Japan is Tekken player Tanukana.
Described by some as an up-and-coming player in the pro scene, Tanukana was part of the eSports organization known as Cyclops Athlete Gaming.
Cyclops competes in first-person shooters like Call of Duty, PUBG and Rainbow Six Siege as well as fighting games like Tekken.
Over the last couple of months, she had gained popularity in Japan because of her skills in the fighting game genre.
Despite this success, she recently made some "below the belt" comments that threatened to ruin her promising career in the industry.
Tanukana has been terminated from Cyclops Athlete Gaming for remarks she made about men's heights during a livestream.
In a February 15 stream, Tanukana said, "Men who are under 5 feet, 6.9 inches don't have human rights."
She added they should look into getting bone-lengthening surgery. (According to Healthline, the average height for men in Japan is 170.8 cm or 5 feet, 7.2 inches).
These comments were obviously unusual and possibly offensive to those that were shorter.
Many people did not react favorably to these controversial opinions from the streamer.
While the esports player noted that her intentions were not to cause harm to short people, this was not enough for some.
The Osaka eSports organization has released a statement confirming the cancellation of Tanukana's sponsorship contract effective Friday.
According to Cyclops, Tanukana made inappropriate and discriminatory remarks, which led to her removal.
In Japanese, the word for human rights is "jinken." But in gaming parlance, jinken refers to an item or character that all players need to have.
On Twitter, a debate has ensued over whether the slang led to Tanukana's remark.
Regardless, the attention and controversy that the incident generated was enough for Cyclops to remove her from their team. The organization has issued an apology along with their statement on the matter.
Tanukana apologized in a tweet that addressed fans and the team's sponsor, Red Bull, saying she has "deep remorse" for this statement, which is "unbecoming of a professional eSports athlete and a member of society."
According to Tanukana, the words she uttered during her live broadcast are "completely inexcusable" and that she accepts that they came from "a place of my own ignorance."
Tanukana's Cyclops page had a laundry list of sponsors that included Alienware and Red Bull. In the wake of the controversy, all the sponsors were scrubbed from her page.
