Valorant Esports Suspends Two Players After Online Argument Over Teabagging
Two Valorant esports players have been suspended from Riot-sanctioned tournaments after violating Valorant’s global policy on offensive language, vulgar content, and harassment of other players.
Dawn "Dawn" Park was suspended from competition for three months with a return date of September 27, 2022. Vivian "Risorah" Dela Cruz was suspended for nine months, returning on March 27, 2023.
Related: The Trouble With Teabagging
Both suspensions stem from a heated debate that began in the Galorant Discord channel, which hosts an all-female competitive Valorant community (via Eurogamer). The debate was whether in-game teabagging constituted sexual assault. The debate began on Discord June 24 and eventually spread to Twitter over the following days.
Dawn’s responses on Twitter "included a vulgar and targeted remark" toward a particular Galorant member, while Risorah created multiple Twitter posts sharing screen captures of conversations from the community Discord. Risorah also posted a video "in which they amplified and personally added vulgar commentary" to her earlier posts.
Riot conducted an investigation that included personal interviews with Dawn, Riot, and the victimized third party.
In a statement, Dawn remained defiant in the face of the ban. She admitted to "shitposting" on Twitter, but also noted that others who did the same faced no disciplinary action from Riot.
"I have friends that have literally been raped. I have watched [sexual assault] happen in broad daylight. It is not something you can compare to crouching in a video game," wrote Dawn. "I was visibly upset by this, as were hundreds of thousands of people, and replied under her thread expressing my frustrations and concerns."
Risorah, meanwhile, was more
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