Teen Valorant gamer banned from female team Galorants for ‘ignorant and disrespectful’ transphobia
Valorant. (Riot Games)
Galorants, the platform for female Valorant players, is upholding its decision to ban one of its members for transphobic behaviour.
The community server, on Discord and Twitch, is dedicated to supporting women who play the character-based, tactical first person shooter game.
However, one of its members, named Ciao, was banned four months ago from the community and all tournaments and events.
The ban has been made public now due to a Twitlonger from Ciao in which she notes her ban appeal has been refused.
“I’m really stressed out because of all of this as it’s affecting my career as a Valorant player,” she writes.
“I am only 16 and I’m human, I can make mistakes. I feel like I need to explain again that I did not mean anything the way it was portrayed. I don’t want my career to end before it has even begun because of a misunderstanding.”
https://twitter.com/ciaolyx/status/1391568122604310531
The specific situation was with Ciao and her team playing against another all-female team from the community and, after a strong performance by a substitute player on the opposing team, they questioned their gender.
That substitute Valorant player was a trans woman.
“Our curiosity got the best of us and at the end of the scrimmage we asked the fill about their gender,” says Ciao.
“It was really insensitive that we asked, and it should not have been taken as an insult, as we did not know. We were not able to appeal to the ban, or explain our perspective of the situation, the representative/moderator was persuaded that our whole team was transphobic.”
Galorants have since responded with their own statement.
Regarding player Ciao and the ban from the Galorants Server: https://t.co/Nl4Bpfuzrr
— Galorants (@Galorants) May 10, 2021
“We do our best to keep these matters private in order to not shine a spotlight on anyone, however, given that she has made the choice to publicize this we will respond in kind,” it reads.
They claim that there was more to the situation than Ciao let on, that there was a bet against the substitute player who was referred to as “it” and “boy”. As a result, they are upholding the ban against Ciao.
“Being young is not an excuse for ignorance or disrespect. We work hard to provide a safe environment for all women. At no point would laughing at and calling someone an “it” be considered acceptable conduct.
“We state clearly in our rules that we have a zero tolerance policy for this type of behaviour: ‘Bans: These occur when you break the rules above or disrupt the community in a damaging and serious manner.’”
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