Riot Games is investigating the allegations against Rising Hope coach Vladislav “Simons” Mineev.
In early October, Simons was accused by Rising Hope former head coach Jehiel “Pizzafps” Ardiente of sexual harassing her and the rest of the Game Changers team. She told her story through a TwitLonger, complete with a full timeline of the events that led to her and the rest of the all-female VALORANT team to part ways with the org.
Pizzafps brought the issue to Rising Hope co-owner Lazar, and discussed kicking Simons off of the org.”We told Lazar that if he didn’t take out Simons, we would be the ones to leave the org. Initially, Lazar wanted to keep Simons in the org with the reason that he ‘is a big star’, but he agreed with the team’s sentiments about Simons’ behavior, and told us that he will not be joining the team as coach moving forward,” she said.
Afterwards, Rising Hope officially announced the departure of the roster, but specified that Simons will remain a part of the org to “take part in the formation of the new line-up.” About a week later, they posted their official statement.
“We very much regret that such an action was taken by one of our members, we want to make it clear that we did not receive enough information as some members of the organisation withheld it from the general management,” the first part read.
“We would therefore like to inform you that:
1) Simons is no longer a member of our organisation,
2) Everyone involved in this incident has been fined.
We apologize to our former players and the entire community.”
Now, VALORANT Esports Philippines posted on their official Facebook regarding Riot Games' official response to the issue.
“Riot Games is aware of recent allegations against an APAC Game Changers coach, ‘simons'. Riot takes these allegations seriously and has started reviewing the matter,” the post read. “We have appointed an external third-party law firm to conduct the investigation and will provide an update in due course.”
No official statements from any parties involved have been published as of the time of writing.
Follow Us
Subscribe