Jay “Sinatraa” Won recently announced his intention to return to VALORANT esports, a year after he, in his own words “was forced to step back from competitive play.” In his tweet, he fails to mention the reason why he was banned from professional VALORANT: because he failed to cooperate with a police investigation after he was credibly accused of sexual assault. He allegedly sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend Cleo “cle0h” Hernandez on multiple occasions, with Hernandez providing audio clips of one such assault. She also shared text messages and a personal account of events. Won has denied all accusations levied against him.
However, he was later suspended by Riot for failing to cooperate with the investigation, and Riot says he repeatedly misrepresented the truth and lied.
“In at least two occasions Sinatraa misrepresented certain facts, made false statements, and did not cooperate with the investigation in a way expected of a professional VALORANT esports player,” reads Riot’s statement. “Of note, Sinatraa’s public commitment on social media to provide the full audio and video clip referenced in the original post was never fulfilled.”
Unsurprisingly, it has been left to the women in esports to call out Sinatraa’s return, which would attempt to rehabilitate his image and make people forget about the serious allegations leveled against him. Esports caster and personality Indiana “Froskurinn” Black has long spoken out about the treatment of women in esports, and let her thoughts on the matter be known on Twitter.
“A Valo[rant] pro was accused of sexual assault with audio clips, texts, and personal account,” wrote Black. “Like most sexual assaults, there was no finalized criminal case. This is apparently completely fine for orgs to now sign him. Is it fine? The orgs are surely gauging PR perception.”
While most public perception seems to be positive, that is not guaranteed to last. Signing Sinatraa could be a PR disaster for any organization, and as good a player as he is, no one is worth that kind of trouble.
It’s unclear what will happen, but any organization will have to take a good, hard look at themselves in the mirror before deciding whether or not to bring him in. Any organization that does add him will instantly be on damage control duty as a result.
(All information was provided by TheGamer)
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