Brazilian League of Legends co-streamer Gustavo ‘Baiano’ Gomes has apologized to Gen.G and Jeong ‘Chovy’ Ji-hoon following a controversy surrounding an on-stream interview.
What is the Baiano Chovy interview controversy?
Baiano, a former pro player and owner of Brazilian stream team Ilha das Lendas, interviewed Chovy as part of his on-site co-stream of First Stand 2026.
A bucket of popcorn with a Gen.G logo was placed prominently on the desk in front of the pair during the interview. In Brazilian Portuguese, the term ‘pipoqueiro’ or ‘pipoca’ (meaning popcorn) is used as slang to call a player a choker.
The interview itself passed without incident, with Chovy seemingly unaware of the slight and thanking Brazilian fans for their support and passion.
The meaning behind the popcorn bucket was not lost to social media users or the Gen.G CEO, Arnold Hur, who initially came under fire for allowing the interview.
Gen.G Arnold clarified that the “Team only approved an interview with on-site co-streamer. None of this other stuff mentioned or cleared beforehand.”
Additionally, in a now-deleted post, Baiano posed with Chovy with the caption (translated) “What a moment, family. / Just grateful with Chovy [popcorn emoji, praying emoji) / Thank you for the 3 titles for Faker!”
Following the clarification, Baiano came under increasing fire for exploiting the language barrier to poke fun at the player without his awareness, drawing social media furore.
Baiano apologizes to Gen.G and Chovy
On Tuesday evening, Baiano revealed that he had reached out to Gen.G and Chovy to apologize, stating that he had the idea behind the interview was not to encourage hate towards Chovy.
The streamer stated, “More than anything, I just want to apologize for everything that happened. It’s not something that went in the direction of us having planned something to send hate or whatever, to encourage people to hate on Chovy, you know? That never happened.” (translated)
Before adding that his stream is half T1 fans and half Gen.G fans, something which his stream benefits from.
Gen.G CEO, Arnold Hur, acknowledged the apology on a post on X, stating:
“Regarding the situation: the streamer reached out to apologize to Chovy. We were clear to him that this crossed the line, which he acknowledged as this wasn’t fair play or banter given the language barrier, and that the tweet immediately after a player gives his time for an interview missed the mark, which he also agreed.”
Adding, “We as a team have decided we will move forward and focus on the tournament.”
Do you think the interview was just banter or went too far? You can discuss that on our Discord Server!
For more League of Legends news, see the Revealed 2026 April Fools’ Skins!
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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