Professional Fortnite player Cowboy, who was signed to TSM, has been released by the eSports organization after allegedly sending inappropriate messages to an unidentified, underage Twitch streamer. Some of the messages were revealed in a stream by well-known Twitch streamer Faith, who was apparently sent the messages by Cowboy's alleged victim. The underage girl said Cowboy's messages to her made her feel "uncomfortable."

Since Faith's revelation on Twitch, TSM quickly cut ties with Cowboy, releasing him from his competitive Fortnite contract. Cowboy has reacted by deleting some of his social media accounts, including his Twitter and Discord. However, his Twitch channel is still up at the time of this writing.

Faith's Twitch stream is somewhat light on details, but she shows inappropriate messages to the screen that are said to have been written by Cowboy (who is married, according to eSports insider Rod Breslau) and sent to the underage girl.

Cowboy has used his Twitch channel to issue a statement about the situation. In his statement, Cowboy disputes some claims that have been made since Faith's Twitch stream, including the assertion that he's married. Cowboy says that he has hired a lawyer to handle his case and insists that he is not a "pedofile." [sic]

Cowboy's situation is far from the first time a professional gamer found themselves in the center of controversy. Like athletes in other sports, misconduct by eSports athletes is widely publicized. Pro gamers have received fines and suspensions for everything from using racial and homophobic slurs to general unsportsmanlike conduct.

Whether or not the accusations against Cowboy are true or not is not our place to say. The text messages shared by Faith seem to be fairly damning evidence against the former Fortnite pro, but it's possible Cowboy may have some other evidence that argues for his innocence. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see what other revelations come out from this as the story develops.