Following a heated argument last month about teabagging players in games, two Valorant players have been temporarily barred from taking part in Riot-sponsored events. Dawn “Dawn” Park has been given a three-month ban from “any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned competition,” while Vivian “Risorah” Dela Cruz has been given a nine-month suspension by Riot.
A member of the Galorants Discord, a group created to support female and non-binary Valorant players, sent a statement in late June equating teabagging another player in-game to sexual assault. This remark was later removed by Riot. It caused a heated discussion on the Discord server, in which Dawn and Risorah joined in, and after that, moderators decided to shut down the entire service for a week.
The conversation eventually spread to Twitter, where people like streamer Charlie “Cr1tikal” White and Jake Lucky into the fray. At this moment, Riot’s decision states “The conversation turned into a debate spanning several Twitter posts. Dawn’s comments included a derogatory comment “the nameless player’s direction.
The ruling goes on to say how “Risorah created multiple Twitter posts specifically targeted at Player A, in which Risorah pasted Galorants Discord conversations between themselves and Player A. Risorah proceeded to post a video they edited, in which they amplified and personally added a vulgar commentary around Player A. On June 28, Risorah directly tagged and targeted Player A as the subject of a vulgar post.”
According to Riot, in addition to speaking with those who were present during the incident, it also examined “detailed screenshots and video of the alleged infractions.” Due to all of this, Riot has temporarily banned both Dawn and Risorah, claiming that they both violated Rule 7.3.1 (vulgar or hateful speech) and Rule 7.3.4, respectively (harassment).
Both Dawn and Risorah have responded to the bans with statements released on Twitter. Dawn wrote: “I have friends that have literally been raped. I have watched SA happen in broad daylight. It is not something you can compare to crouching in a video game. I was visibly upset by this, as were hundreds of thousands of people, and replied under her thread expressing my frustrations and concerns.”
Risorah said “I will be taking this punishment with the responsibility of my actions that led to my situation,” adding: “My future in competitive play or in Valorant in general is unknown, so, we’ll see where I go from here.”
Dawn’s suspension will be lifted after September 27, 2022, while Risorah’s suspension will end on March 27, 2023
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