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Esports reporter Rod "Slasher" Breslau suggested that top Valorant players like Melanie “meL” Capone had been denied the trials for tier-1 VCT teams. This was supposedly because some male players on the squad did not want to play with a woman. This conversation took place on analyst and former coach Sean Gares' Twitch stream.
Members of the Valorant community were taken by shock upon being confronted with this information. One such user on Reddit, u/najmalesinw, satirically remarked:
“damn, that's messed up. i thought we were past this whole 'girls can't play video games' bulls**t. guess some guys are still living in the stone age. smh”
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There were others who were equally shocked by the revelation. The ensuing conversation between Slasher and Gares shed light on similar episodes with respect to the former CS pro and VCT Game Changers Champion, Michaela “mimi” Lintrup.
Valorant community disappointed with the treatment meted out to female pros trying for tier-1 spots
As Sean Gares was appreciating meL's capabilities as an in-game leader, Slasher shared that Version1's current IGL has been denied the opportunity to even trial for tier-1 teams for the upcoming season of VCT owing to objections from male players on those rosters. He said:
“Every single team that she has tried to scrim with, at a tier one level, has refused to try out because there was at least one player on the team that does not want to play with a woman.”
Slasher further recalled how esports has historically been a harsh terrain for women, with players like mimi facing similar discrimination in Counter-Strike.
Even though mimi was the best female player at the time, she was denied the opportunity to play on tier-two or even tier-three teams alongside male players as some members of those rosters "did not want to practice with a woman," according to Slasher.
While rampant sexism existing in Valorant servers (or any competitive video game, for that matter) is nothing new, it is indeed upsetting to find out that top-level professional athletes also hold similar values.
Reacting to this, members of the Valorant Competitive subreddit commented:
Some members of this community hoped that the players who took such a stand would be revealed, thereby letting fans be aware of their hypocrisy and lack of sportsmanship.
As usual, there were a few people who swooped in to take a stand to defend the players who allegedly refused to practice with meL and others like her. They argued that the reason could be that "she's just not good enough."
Another Redditor suggested that meL should get together with other women like her and form a tier-1 team.
This only goes on to show the level to which misogyny is internalized by many members of the community, even today. Even after women have achieved success at the top-most level of Valorant esports, they continue to face discrimination at all levels.
Players like meL, mimi, and others have displayed excellent gameplay over the years. Even on the coaching side, Christine "potter" Chi led Evil Geniuses to victory at Valorant Champions 2023, etching her name on the game's history books as the first female coach to do so.
It still remains to be seen how the organizations take things forward in light of these revelations brought about by Slasher and how things pan out in the upcoming VCT seasons.
