Galorants uphold permaban on Ciao after transphobic comments

Galorants, the competitive Discord server for female Valorant players, has responded negatively to an appeal to remove the ban of one of their former members.

The ex-member in question is Ciao. She has been banned several months ago both from the server and from any activities related to the organisation, including tournaments and other events. 

The reasons for the ban were her transphobic remarks following the match her team has played against another all-female roster.

The incident has been kept private in order to protect all involved sides but has recently surfaced as Ciao has made the situation public by making a public statement and appealing for her permaban to be lifted.

In her statement, Ciao says that they didn't have any ill intentions and is asking for forgiveness and a second chance, saying that "I am only 16 and I'm human, I can make mistakes."

"Our curiosity got the best of us and at the end of the scrimmage, we asked the fill about their gender. It was really insensitive that we asked, and it should not have been taken as an insult, as we did not know," she wrote. "We were not able to appeal to the ban, or explain our perspective of the situation, the representative/moderator was persuaded that our whole team was transphobic."

As a response, Galorants has decided to go public as well and respond to her statement with a statement of their own.

The organisation has refuted Ciao's statement, saying that she and her team were making fun of and repeatedly insulting the trans woman who played for their opponents.

Galorants has been doing a lot of community events for female players (Picture: Galorants)

According to the information provided by Galorants, the transgender played in question has been added as a substitute on the opposing team. The sub performed expectantly well and after the match, Ciao and her teammates made a bet on the sub's gender.

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According to Galorants statement, they were harassing the sub via voice communication, calling her "it", and saying things like "I told you it was a boy" and "that is definitely a boy".

Galorants states that they've taken everything into consideration and collected all the evidence before they have made a decision, and upon reading Ciao's appeal, they have decided to still keep the ban.

"We work hard to provide a safe environment for all women. At no point would laughing at and calling someone an “it” be considered acceptable conduct. We state clearly in our rules that we have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behaviour," the statement reads.

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The all-female Valorant competitive scene is quickly growing, and there have already been several big competitions, with another one coming in June, Verizon VCT Game Changers NA, with Galorants as one of the event's organisers.