Riot suspends Valorant’s Pro Player on charges of sexual harassment.
Also in March of this year, Valorant’s pro player known as Jay “Sinatraa” Won was accused of sexual harassment by a former girlfriend, who recounted in detail some of the abuse experiences over the course of their nine-month relationship. Immediately, an investigation against Sinatraa was launched and the boy’s team, the Sentinels, suspended him until everything was resolved.
After some time since the incident, Riot Games has commented on the matter and decided to suspend the Pro Player for another 6 months, citing that he did not collaborate with the investigation that the studio itself was carrying out. According to the company, Sinatraa misrepresented certain facts, made false claims and did not cooperate in the way that is expected of a professional Valorant player.
It is worth remembering that as soon as his former partner made the accusations, the audio of a video was released in which it was clear that he had insisted on continuing a sexual act even after she refused and asked him to stop. Sinatraa quickly defended himself by saying that he had the full video showing the context of the situation and would hand it over to the authorities to prove that he had not committed this abuse.
Riot Games has made a stronger statement on the situationSource: Riot Games/Reproduction
But not only did he not turn over the video to the authorities, he also backed down saying that he actually deleted the video as soon as he ended his relationship with the woman. This raised serious suspicions and may have been one of the reasons why Riot Games became even more suspicious.
Also according to the developer of Valorant, the player will be suspended until at least the 10th of September of this year and will only be able to return to play if he undergoes conduct training. It’s just not known whether the Sentinels team will continue their contract with him, as his replacement by player Tyson “TenZ” Ngo was very successful and they have been quite prominent in their matches since then.
Of course, any return of Sinatraa will also depend on his acquittal by the authorities, as it’s hard to imagine a career in eSports if the boy is actually guilty of the charges. It would even be difficult for him to return to the Overwatch League, considering that Blizzard offered refunds for the special skin the player received after being named the league’s MPV (Most Valuable Player) in 2019.
