BTOB Peniel’s Name Was Flagged As Inappropriate In An NBA Video Game

BTOB‘s lead rapper Peniel grew up and attended elementary and middle school in the American city of Chicago, which is why he has been fluent in English since his debut. Being bilingual is a huge blessing for him since he can participate in many activities requiring him to speak English continuously.

One unique opportunity he has had is being a member of DIVE Studio‘s English language Get Real podcast since 2020. He hosts season 3 of the series with JUNNY and Ladies’ Code‘s Ashley Choi.

Through the show, fans get an idea of what K-Pop idols are like when they’re allowed to speak candidly to one another and share intimate stories. In the first episode of season 3, Peniel told JUNNY and Ashley that he was recently invited to watch the NBA‘s Summer League. He also interviewed NBA player Tyler Herro and got his own NBA card made! (NBA stands for National Basketball Association, one of the world’s most well-respected sports organizations.)

While this story was amazing, his joy was short-lived when he also had to mention that, despite being invited to these events, he’s still unable to use his name in any of the NBA 2k video games. This is because the word “Peniel” is flagged as inappropriate as a username!

JUNNY’s reaction says it all. Peniel completely agreed with him. “I was like, it’s from the Bible, what!?” he said. (This refers to the Bible verse Genesis 32:30.)

What’s more, he has been unable to use “Peniel” as his username since the 2018 version of the game. Even on Microsoft Word, his name is autocorrected to “penile!”

Microsoft Word thought I misspelled my name too. Every single time when I’m writing an essay I’m like, Peniel Shin and it’s like, the freaking paper clip guy pops out, ‘Did you mean penile?’ I’m like, no I did not mean d*ck!

Now that he has some connections to the NBA, hopefully, someone can reach out to the game’s developers and finally let Peniel use his name.

Watch the highlight from the podcast below.