Overwatch League players photos used to catfish on dating sites

Former London Spitfire support Gyu-min ‘SanGuiNar’ Lim has reported that Overwatch League players’ photographs are being used for catfishing on dating apps. 

Catfishing has long plagued the online dating scene. Defined as pretending to be someone else on social media either to attract or trick another person, the practice is something matchmaking apps have tried their best to shut down.

While often associated with celebrities from more mainstream media, such as YouTube beauty guru James Charles, Korea has seen a very different type of celebrity become a victim of catfishing.

Overwatch League player SanGuiNar has revealed that his images, alongside other OWL pros have been used maliciously on dating apps.

OWL pro’s photos used to catfish

On January 4, the iconic support player explained the issues that images of him, as well as fellow players Se-hwan ‘ChoiSehwan’ Choi and Jung-yeon ‘Chara’ Kim of Guangzhou Charge, are being used to catfish.

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He explains “one of my fans said someone acted like me and GZ Charge’s ChoiSehwan and dated another fan. He used Snapchat to text other fans and used me and ChoiSehwan, Chara’s picture.”

Highlighting that he “doesn’t use Snapchat and has never sent messages to fans first,” the support player closes by stating “don’t be confused, he is not me.”

Why esports pros?

While it may seem odd that individuals would pose as esports players to try and trick others, it’s important to remember that Korean culture idolizes gaming professionals, more so than in other nations.

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League of Legends player Sang-hyeok ‘Faker’ Lee is practically a household name, and has appeared alongside K-Pop Idols BTS on their reality show, Run! BTS. In a culture where esports professionals are as popular as conventional athletes are in the West, posing as an OWL pro presents a whole host of opportunities.

Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon, but until then the moral of the story is to always stay diligent online.