There’s no denying that online harassment of female gamers - and online harassment in general - is a serious issue in the gaming community. While attempting to make the world of online gaming a less toxic place is an admirable cause, the Bully Hunters organization seems to have gone the exact wrong way about it, facing strong backlash and losing its sponsors in the wake of a recent livestream.

The Bully Hunters held a livestream this past Thursday, April 12, in an attempt to show how it can help female gamers that are being harassed online, specifically in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The concept behind the Bully Hunters is that someone who is being harassed can request help from the organization, and they will then be connected with a “Bully Hunter” on Steam. That Bully Hunter will then somehow join the victim’s in-progress Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match, kill the bully once, and leave a message stating harassment will not be tolerated.

There were a couple of examples of this shown during the Bully Hunters livestream on Twitch, though they appear to be staged incidents. Check out the full Bully Hunters Twitch livestream right here:

Since airing the controversial stream, Bully Hunters has shut down its website and social media accounts. Sponsors SteelSeries, Vertagear, and the Diverse Gaming Coalition have all pulled support from the Bully Hunters, releasing statements that suggested as though the organization started as something much different than what was shown in the stream.

Popular Twitch streamer ZombiUnicorn, who co-hosted the stream, is remaining with Bully Hunters as a consultant. She believes that the organization has done some good, despite the widespread negative reaction to the stream.

Whether or not Bully Hunters will regroup and try again remains to be seen.

“If it’s gonna help a few more people understand that this is not OK—all these people are speaking up saying that we shouldn’t do the Bully Hunters thing because that might harass the bully—then it did its job. It’s bringing more attention to the fact that harassing isn’t OK. You can debate the merits of the execution, but I’m always gonna remain supportive of the overall goal.”

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Source: Kotaku