Galorants, a volunteer-run VALORANT group that helps with VCT’s Game Changers events and other women and marginalized gender tournaments, has shut down for a week to deal with issues that have cropped up.
The news was given on Discord and on Twitter, and linked to a longer explanation on a Google doc which gives GALORANTS’ reasoning behind the surprise shut-down, and a pledge to rectify many of the common issues they’ve identified.
The issues started with a competitive ruling which was handed out during one of the Game Changers Academy tournaments where a VALORANT player named Taffs displayed transphobia and unsportsmanlike conduct during a match.
Initially, Galorants only issued this player a warning, which angered much of the community. On June 25, that warning was increased to a three month suspension after the matter was escalated to Riot.
More recently, a member of the Discord posted in a channel designated for people to talk about serious issues. During the discussion, this member equated in-game teabagging to sexual assault, which is a banned topic within that channel and on the Discord server. The topic is banned due to its triggering and sensitive nature.
Mods were slow to step in, which resulted in the conversation leaking to other social media channels, and eventually gaining the attention of several members of the community, including NA VCT players.
In order to deal with these two issues and with a number of other issues identified by the GALORANTS moderation team, the Discord is now shut down until Wednesday, July 6.
