Activision remove NICKMERCS Call of Duty bundle following “anti-LGBTQ” Pride Month statements

Twitch streamer Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff came under fire for an “anti-LGBTQ+” tweet, and Activision have now removed his Operator skin bundle from the Warzone and Modern Warfare 2 Store “due to recent events.”

Top Twitch streamer NICKMERCS has received a ton of backlash following a controversial June 7 tweet in which he said LGBTQ+ education shouldn’t be in schools and “they should leave the little children alone.”

This was in response to reports that a large fight broke outside of a school in California following a decision to recognize Pride Month, and NICKMERCS later doubled down on his comments on stream, saying he “didn’t mean to upset anybody” but schools aren’t “the place to speak about things like that.”

“It’s not that I think it shouldn’t be spoken about,” he said. “If that’s what you got out of that tweet, you’re just wrong.”

The streamer was met with a ton of backlash, with top names in the gaming scene and fans calling him out for “anti-LGBTQ” behavior.

Who is this they and what terrible act is everyone afraid of?

I think/hope the goal of most of “them” is to reduce child suicides. This is done through acceptance and removing the stigma of feeling/being different.

As a dad I’m struggling to see the harm. Gay doesn’t = pedo

— Puckett ✈️ #CDL2023 (@MLGPuckett) June 7, 2023

NICKMERCS received his own Call of Duty bundle in Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 alongside fellow streamer TimTheTatman on May 31, but Nick’s skin and bundle have now been removed from the store.

“Due to recent events, we have removed the ‘NICKMERCS Operator’ bundle from the Modern Warfare II and Warzone store,” tweeted Call of Duty on June 8. “We are focused on celebrating PRIDE with our employees and our community.”

Alongside the bundle being removed, the blog post announcing the NICKMERCS bundle has been deleted as well as trailers for his skin.

This is all Call of Duty have said on the matter at the time of writing, so there’s no confirmation of whether the bundle will ever return, or what happens to players who own the bundle. The skin could be edited or refunds could be offered but there’s no word yet.