Why did Valorant pros Dawn and Risorah get banned? Exploring the teabagging incident

Riot Games has been receiving a lot of flak from the Valorant community over their recent decision to ban two prominent pros. The suspension was the result of a teabagging incident back in June.

The entire debacle stemmed from a conversation that took place on Galorant's Discord server. This server primarily consists of those who identify as women. Given the sensitive nature of the server, a lot of topics were banned from discussion.

The said incident occurred when an individual going by the name Ripley Lawless equated teabagging in Valorant to sexual assault, on a channel meant for sensitive issues. The argument escalated quite quickly and the moderators of the Galorant server didn't step in on time, thereby causing the debacle to spread over on social media.

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Dawn and Risorah get banned on Valorant for alleged harassment

Lawless' statement took the internet by storm, with many mocking him for his conduct. Shortly thereafter, Dawn "Dawn" Park and Vivian "Risorah" Dela Cruz took to their personal social media profiles to further berate the statement.

Dela Cruz went the extra mile and told Lawless that they would teabag them in Valorant. This statement got the former banned from the Galorant Discord server on June 28.

Following the incident, Riot Games conducted a month-long investigation of their own and ended up banning Dawn and Risorah for violating Rule 7.3.1 and Rule 7.3.4 of the Valorant Champions Tour Global Competition Policy. Dawn was accused of making "vulgar and targeted comments against another player" and was handed a three-month ban.

Risorah, on the other hand, was suspended for nine months because they had allegedly "systematically targeted and isolated another player.” While these bans were handed out due to Riot's policy against harassing other players, the internet felt otherwise. Many believed that disagreeing with a statement did not even warrant a ban.

Moreover, Riot, in their ruling, mentioned the government names of both these individuals, while continuing to withhold the identity of the person who was harassed. This triggered the internet even more as many reckoned that Riot had doxed the other two parties involved.

This has caused widespread uproar in the global Valorant community as many people believe that teabagging in a game can never be equated to sexual assault. For those who don't know, teabagging is an act of repeatedly crouching on the body of a fallen enemy. Many consider it to be a victory dance, and it is a common sight in games such as Valorant, Halo and Counter Strike.

The question of this move being ethical or not is a different discussion altogether, but comparing it to sexual assault is egregiously wrong. Moreover, by banning these two individuals from Valorant tournaments or any other Riot contests, it perpetuates the notion that the company conflates teabagging with sexual assault.

The internet believes that Riot Games' stance on this matter trivializes the issue even further.