Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez has stepped down from his position as CEO of G2 Esports. This follows after a week-long controversy stemming from Rodriguez posting a video depicting him in a party with infamous personality Andrew Tate.

Only a little over a week has passed since Rodriguez has posted a video of him partying with known misogynist Andrew Tate, an act that he was publicly criticized for. Rodriguez, amidst the bashing, doubled down and followed up with a tweet that read “nobody will ever be able to police my friendships. I draw my line here. I party with whoever the f*ck I want.” G2 Esports issued an eight-week long suspension shortly afterwards.

But the penalizing did not stop here for Rodriguez and the organization. Riot Games, developer and publisher of VALORANT, reportedly retracted G2 Esports’ franchising as part of the sanction for the acts of their CEO.

Now, G2 Esports has posted a statement on their official channels, announcing Rodriguez’ decision to step down and separating the organization from Tate’s misogynistic actions.

“G2ARMY,

It’s been a tough week for us all following the vents of last weekend. Today we received, and accepted, Carlos’ announcement to step down as CEO of G2 Esports.

As a global esports organization serving the world’s most diverse fan-base, we take responsibility for our fans, employees, team members, and partners across the world. In this context, we want to underline that we do not support any form of misogyny. We continue to prioritize fostering inclusivity and supporting a diverse gaming community.

We are fully committed to continue the legacy of G2 and feel empowered by the passion and commitment of the G2ARMY. Thank you.

G2 Esports.”

At around the same time, Rodriguez himself tweeted out a short video.

“You know I thought about no better way to do this than with a vertical video, which I know I got a lot of flak for in the past, in previous times. But [there is] no better way to do this than this.

I can’t believe what I’m about to say now, but… my time in G2 has come to an end. Which means I am stepping down from my CEO position. It might be a shocker to many of you, or most of you. Trust me, this is a very hard ending to what has been otherwise a very deeply meaningful and joyful experience. I’ve met great people along the way – my colleagues have been fantastic to me, and I am very grateful for all these years together.

I take full responsibility over everything that went on in the last few days, and again trust me when I say I just feel f*cking destroyed about it. You should know that.

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What’s next for G2? I mean I created G2 8+ years ago and I bootstrapped it with what I earned as a player, invested everything into it, not only money but also time. What initially was a dream of mine that started [in my head], eventually became a group of people with similar ambitions, culture, and goals. That’s something that I will always look back to and be happy about because I think we’ve done a good job at it.

I wanna thank all the fans, I wanna thank all the sponsors that make it possible. You know, make our livelihood possible. I wanna thank all the investors that trusted me early on with their money. I wanna thank all the publishers that trusted me with putting teams together for their games and allowing me to play in their leagues. League organizers, et cetera, you guys have been fantastic to me over the last 17 years, and I will never forget.

I’m very emotional about this but I will not cry. Not today. This is my farewell video so I will not f*cking cry now, okay? I hope you guys remember me for the good things, I hope that is my legacy, the good things. Just know that I’m very grateful for all of you. I’ll see you around and remember: We’re samurai. We thrive not because we win, but because we always get back up.”

Reactions from the esports scene has been mixed regarding this move, especially in the League of Legends scene wherein Rodriguez himself has played in prior to the creation of G2 Esports and whose Western scene is dominated by the org. It is also widely speculated that G2 missing out on the VALORANT franchising is what caused Rodriguez to step down instead of the previous sanctioned suspension.

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