In one of the strangest stories from the world of eSports, an Overwatch pro has quit following allegations that she doesn’t actually exist.
Simply known as “Ellie,” the new addition to the Overwatch League’s official minor league has become the target of speculation from people who believe she’s trying to conceal something.

Unusually for an eSports pro, Ellie came into the scene without much of a history, leaving her real first and last name unknown and not having much of an existing public presence, especially in the Overwatch world.
Suspicions quickly arose after Ellie joined the minor league, Second Wind, in December last year, culminating in a Reddit thread called “Who is Ellie?”
“Ellie” isn’t a girl and when SW had to provide some kind of verification, even if it wasn’t made to the public, knew it wasn’t worth risking their team for a stunt like this. Case closed 😴😴
— vert (@rambodabxd) January 3, 2019
Theories range from “Ellie” being a handle for another pro player, to her being a transgender gamer unwilling to reveal too much about her identity.

To try and combat the rumours, Ellie played Overwatch on stream along with a top-500 played, Punisher – one of the people fans believed she really was. Did it work? No.
why was there no public support or public announcement that you dont tolerate harrassment or doxxing and “if a player is good, they deserve a spot in our team”. Ive seen now two comments about the public silence on this matter.
— Trishh (really trying) (@trishhmakes) January 3, 2019
The strange series of events even went as far as threats to Ellie, prompting her to quit from Second Wind.
On Twitter, Justin Hughes, owner of Second Wind offered a statement about her departure, saying: “When we brought her onto the team, people acted like we had brought on a symbol of empowerment,

“I get that people meant well, but on one side, we had people questioning her legitimacy, issuing threats, etc. while on the other hand, we had people acting like they had found their Messiah.
“Between needing a player to live up to huge expectations and having to question their own safety, it seems that the OW community isn’t ready to just view a player as just a player. We wanted a player, but it seemed like the public wanted something else.”
(2/2) their Messiah. Between needing a player to live up to huge expectations and having to question their own safety, it seems that the OW community isn’t ready to just view a player as just a player. We wanted a player, but it seemed like the public wanted something else.
— Justin Hughes (@SwerteSiJustin) January 2, 2019
Sorry about my pronoun usage. However, the message remains the same.
— Justin Hughes (@SwerteSiJustin) January 3, 2019
Hughes also implied that the real reason behind the secrecy was down to how Ellie identified herself, saying: “Sorry about my pronoun usage.”
Sorry about my pronoun usage. However, the message remains the same.
— Justin Hughes (@SwerteSiJustin) January 3, 2019
Whatever really happened, Second Wind and the Overwatch community have lost a fantastic player.
[Update]
It turns out that this female gamer was in fact a male gamer pretending to be a girl. This has come to light after a streamer by the name of Aspen went on her livestream and said ‘Ellie is not Ellie’, ‘The whole situation was meant to be like a social experiment’. Aspen then went onto say that Ellie was in fact another high tier player by the name of Punisher.
Seems like a particularly odd social experiment to me but we will have to wait and see what happens with the team that ‘she’ had joined.