With the inclusion of popular streamers and celebrities as skins in Call of Duty, hardcore fans have been wondering one thing: where’s Scump’s skin?
It seems like a pretty massive oversight that the most popular player in North America and all of CoD esports—who certainly has an argument to be the game’s GOAT—isn’t in the game. And, even more shockingly, it apparently nearly happened.
Where is Scump’s CoD operator skin?
Scump was going to be in CoD, the esports superstar admitted in December 2023, until the massive NICKMERCS controversy happened.
The controversy in question saw NICKMERCS’ CoD skin removed from the store following several controversial anti-LGBTQ statements he made on X (formerly Twitter). Following NICKMERCS’ removal, TimTheTatMan asked for his skin to be removed as well.
While Scump didn’t explicitly say his skin was removed because of the controversy, it’s pretty easy to decipher what he means when he says it was “supposed” to be there. Other famous CoD stars, including FaZe Swagg, were supposed to get in-game items and have since explicitly said their deals were canned due to the controversy.
It appears Activision has turned the money spigot off when it comes to putting creators in CoD. It’s one thing to have a partnership where you pay a creator to promote your game, and another entirely to enter into a two-sided business deal with them. Activision Blizzard, after all of their previous scandals, simply could not be seen profiting off anti-LGBTQ viewpoints. It feels calloused to say that it’s all about the money, but it simply is. It was a brand liability at a time when the company couldn’t afford any huge public missteps.
Put into that context, it’s not as simple as many creators losing revenue because of someone else’s tweet. The risk of having a business partner spewing bigoted rhetoric at any time was simply too great, given Activision Blizzard’s past legal troubles and the pending acquisition by Microsoft.
Will Scump’s CoD skin ever get released?
Maybe once everything cools down with the acquisition, we’ll see these creator deals return. Given how all the deals were wholesale cancelled though, don’t bet on it.
