Esports: Sexual assault allegations in professional Dota 2 community

[Supersonic 49,376]

Grant "GranDGranT" Harris has been at the center of one of Dota 2’s biggest scandals to date.

The caster and content creator is no longer working with Evil Geniuses following a weekend of news during which he was accused of harassing a woman at an event. The organization announced the news on Twitter:

Effective immediately, Grant "GranDgranT" Harris has been released and is no longer a member of Evil Geniuses.

We have a zero-tolerance workplace policy, and take any accusation of harassment, or a violation of our policies handbook, seriously.

The decision by Evil Geniuses follows allegations of sexual harassment from a Twitter user using the handle @cofactorstrudel. On June 21, the woman stated an unnamed caster grabbing her by the wrist at the afterparty for The International 2017 while flirting with her and refused to let go. They later specifically named GranDGranT as the individual.

Before becoming a prominent caster, GranDGranT made racist posts on Dota 2 forums. He has also attacked women within esports on numerous occasions, previously being banned from Twitch for harassing a Dota 2 streamer known as TheFluffiestBunny. 

https://win.gg/news/4798/grandgrant-cut-by-evil-geniuses-after-sexual-harassment-claims

 

In light of thew popular caster GrandDGranT being exposed as a sexual predator, several (former) professional players have used this chance to come out as survivors of sexual assault. Former pro player Joakim "Akke" Akterhall (world championship winner of 2013) detailed his story of sexual assault by somebody of the pro-league realm in a lengthy post you can read HERE, tournament organizer Ken "Hot_Bid" Chen details his experience of being raped by somebody in the professional Dota 2 scene in this post.

[CautiousLurker 19,709]

It's not just the Dota community - a lot of people have been coming out and calling out streamers for abusive behavior... One of my favorite streamers whom I've been watching for years (Jendenise) came out with her story about a bigger streamer (Witwix) whom she dated - reading her account was heartbreaking, I'm still really upset about it...

Some people in the concept art community have also come out and talked about their experiences of abuse and sexual harassment as well - that's also been devastating, cuz... I'm not really a part of that community - I do concept art and illustration but I'm very reclusive... but I'm also aware that attending cons is almost necessary if you really want to 'make it' in the industry and this just removed any inclination to pursue that... I used to dread it cuz I have social anxiety, now I dread it cuz it all just feels so gross - like I feel like if I step out there, I'll be subscribing to all the vile things that keep happening and disproportionately affecting women...