eSports player busted for lying about being nonbinary in the messiest way
In the grand history of stories like Juwanna Mann and Tootsie, the eSports community now has their very own entry in the “lying about gender to get ahead” canon.5v5 FPS game Valorant recently hosted an open qualifier for their Game Changers championship, a tournament dedicated to showcasing teams of underrepresented genders in the VCT scene.
The league has apparently been a bit prone to drama, but none moreso than Eclectiq’s “Cerise” roster.EQ Cerise first hit a rough patch when one of their members, “@carosmacks” was found to be “promoting racist and extremely inappropriate comments,” according to a statement from the team.After ejecting this player from the roster, their scrambling for a replacement member led them into even choppier waters.Now-released Discord DMs show one of the Cerise team members coordinating with a friend, “@dsylexic”, to have him pretend to identify as nonbinary in order to fill the open slot in the explicitly male-exclusive league.Related: Overwatch’s new “Calling All Heroes” initiative aims to give their diversity a major buffThis may have never even been caught if they hadn’t doubled down on controversy.The team was flagged by Riot Games’ anti-cheating software after their very next match, disqualifying them from the league.
Apparently, all signs pointed to the new undercover team addition.Their opponents, CLG Red, advanced immediately:pic.twitter.com/fb0NVQryGU— VALORANT Champions Tour NA (@valesports_na) October 9, 2022The Juwanna-wannabe then posted a twitlonger statement, at once admitting the gender deception and denying the cheating allegations.
He alleged that he’d simply been in a lobby with someone using the offending software.At least he was honest?:forgivenessRead:.
