Riot Games has issued competitive bans to two Valorant aspiring pros for using vulgar language and harassing a fellow player and member of the GALORANTS community.
Dawn and Risorah broke the Valorant Champions Tour Global Competition Policy, specifically Section 7, which states the following:
A Team Member may not, during a Live Event, Online Event, Media Event or in any communication relating to any Official Competition or Valorant, use any language that is offensive, insulting, libelous, slanderous, defamatory, obscene, discriminatory, threatening, foul or vulgar
As a result, Dawn will be banned from three months, while Risorah will not be allowed to compete for nine months in any Riot Games sanctioned Valorant tournament.
Teabagging Controversy Leads To Bans In Valorant Community
The incident stemmed from a rather bizarre episode in June when a Valorant player in the GALORANTS Discord community, a safe place for women and marginalized people to talk and compete in Valorant events, compared being teabagged in the FPS to being sexually assaulted. Ripley, the alleged victim in Riot's eyes, wrote:
I mean it is sexual assault. If I do not consent and someone rubs their genitals in my face that's sexual assault. I wouldn't be proud of being a repeat offender.
The debate exploded outside the Valorant community, becoming a hot topic of conversation for weeks across the gaming community as a whole. Both Dawn and Risorah, like many others, expressed their opinions on the debate via social media.
Dawn made joke tweets about the situation and even shared some memes on multiple occasions. Hardly with intent to personally attack Ripley but rather her take on teabagging being comparable to sexual harassment. For her several comments regarding this matter, Dawn was handed a three-month ban from competing in any Riot-sanctioned Valorant tournaments.
— dawn (@dawnmoer) June 27, 2022
In a Twitlonger, Dawn explained that several most of her tweets are simply "sh*tposting" but ended up being classified as vulgar language to Riot's eyes.
Thousands of other people including pro players and streamers have done it, but nothing for them.
As for Risorah, she edited a video titled "the galorants experience," in which she compiles the original message sent by Ripley in the GALORANTS Discord as well as the subsequent debate which exploded on social media once Ripley decided to double down by tweeting that teabagging had no place in esports.
The video was posted on June 27 and remains up in Risorah's Twitter page.
the galorants experience pic.twitter.com/zdsftx44bd
— risorah (@risorah) June 28, 2022
Similar to Dawn, Risorah posted a Twitlonger recapping what had led Riot to ban her for nine months from competing in any official Valorant tournaments. Her GALORANTS video was one of the main reasons, but she also "threatened" with teabagging Ripley if they ever come across in a GALORANTS in-house scrim or while smurfing in ranked.
I'd like to take the time to thank Riot Games for reaching out to me, as well as an extra thanks for allowing me to cooperate with this investigation. The punishment would have probably been more heavier if I had refused to cooperate, but given the circumstances, I'm willing to always open up as usual and I appreciate the opportunity in doing so.
Riot Criticized For Doxing Players
During their competitive ruling update, Riot decided to utilize both Dawn and Risorah's real names - the former heavily condemned this as she had tried to keep her name out of her online presence for different reasons. Most importantly, the fact that some people may not known she is now a member of the trans community.
yo thanks for doxing me.
— dawn (@dawnmoer) July 25, 2022
In a follow-up tweet, she elaborated on the fact that Riot asked for her government name during the investigation. As Dawn stated, that would've probably led to Riot deadnaming her.
If you're unaware of what the term entails, deadnaming someone is the act of using a trans person's former name they used to go by before transitioning.
All in all, it seems the Valorant community is being supportive of Dawn and Risorah, as many feel the bans are unjustified stemming from a conversation that was blown out of proportion.
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