YouTuber and Twitch streamer Zylbrad accused of racism in Overwatch clip

September 2022 · 2 minute read

A clip has resurfaced on Twitter that shows popular YouTuber and Twitch streamer Zylbrad going on a racist tirade against indigenous Australians while playing Overwatch.

Zylbrad is one of the biggest Apex Legends content creators on YouTube having amassed over 2.5 million subscribers, putting out a new video nearly every single day. He’s also garnered a huge following on Twitch, with 125k followers on the streaming platform.

His YouTube channel is now dedicated to Apex Legends, but before he made the switch to Apex he was an Overwatch YouTuber, with many videos on the Blizzard shooter that reached millions of viewers.

On August 11, a clip from Zylbrad’s Overwatch days resurfaced on Twitter. In the clip, Zylbrad is heard using racist language against Aboriginal Australians.

Zybrad and octane from apex legends

Zylbrad’s tirade and apology

The clip below was posted by the user sissyjuice on Twitter on August 11.

@zylbrad7 imagine having a platform as large as yours as being this disgustingly racist. GRUB. Definition of an uneducated colonisers. This is why we say BLM and ILM because of people like you. pic.twitter.com/AugA9PSGnv

— sissyjuice (@sissyjuice) August 11, 2021

The clip starts out with Zylbrad’s teammate telling him “I think they might be winning now Brad”, to which Zylbrad responds “Shh, we’re killing Aboriginals, I’m an Australian we’re killing Aboriginals, we’re hunting Abos mate.” Zylbrad and his teammate can be heard cracking up while making the insensitive remarks.

Australian Aboriginals are Australia’s indigenous population. Zylbrad continues in the clip, saying “I feel like Steve Irwin hunting Abos, here comes an abo”.

Zylbrad carries on saying “Come on, we’ve got Abos to catch”, with his friend chiming in “We catch them, then we release them. That sounds like a r*pe attempt.” Zylbrad says “The Aboriginals are like yes please”.

Zylbrad responded to the tweet with an apology, saying “I’m sorry to everyone hurt by this. This was from a vid made 5 years ago that was very quickly deleted when the person who made the vid watched it over.”

I’m sorry to everyone hurt by this. This was from a vid made 5 years ago that was very quickly deleted when the person who made the vid watched it over. It was obviously not okay, and extremely poor mentality from my younger self. I know words don’t fix that, but I am sorry.

— Zylbrad (@zylbrad7) August 11, 2021

The clip has since been removed from TikTok.

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