Ever since Jay “sinatraa” Won was first benched by Sentinels following sexual abuse allegations made by his former girlfriend, Daniel “Dafran” Francesca has been a hardcore supporter of his fellow Valorant player. But now it seems that Dafran has gone a bit too far for the majority of the esports community.
sinatraa was suspended from competitive Valorant by Riot in March when his ex-girlfriend, Cleo, came forward with some serious allegations against the former Overwatch League star. This included screenshots of sinatraa verbally abusing her and even an audio recording of sinatraa allegedly pressuring her to have intercourse after she had refused. Riot announced at the time that there would be an internal investigation into the matter.
In response, sinatraa promised to share the full video that Cleo’s audio recording came from in an attempt to clear his name. But ever since that tweet, sinatraa disappeared almost entirely from social media. He popped up in streams here and there, but didn’t speak on the topic publicly again.
A few months later, the Valorant Competitive Operations Team stated that sinatraa would be banned for six months because he didn’t “fully cooperate” with the investigation. The report pointed to sinatraa’s refusal to release the video he initially mentioned. In response, sinatraa finally took responsibility for his actions during his relationship with Cleo.
“I’ve been reflecting a ton during the downtime and know how much I hurt Cleo emotionally and I’m truly sorry about it. I will learn from my mistakes and keep on trying to improve myself as a person,” sinatraa said.
According to the Valorant Competitive Operations Team, sinatraa is still eligible to return to the competitive scene in September. But many esports fans are frustrated that sinatraa can return at all after being accused of sexual abuse and then refusing to cooperate with the ensuing investigation.
Dafran, on the other hand, has lashed out at the people who have condemned sinatraa.
Dafran lashes out at esports community, stands up for sinatraa
As the esports community continued to support Cleo, Dafran decided to tweet in defense of her alleged abuser. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t go well.
Dafran questioned why Cleo would “withhold” the video of her being raped and only share the audio recording since it would “smash sinatraa out of the galaxy.” It appeared that Dafran didn’t believe Cleo had the video to begin with.
So tell me this: Cle0h has a full video of the rape happening(from where the audio “proof” is from). She has the chance to united states of smash Sinatraa out the galaxy but decides to withhold it? Hmmm 🤔
— Farmer Dafran (@dafran) May 17, 2021
In response, people pointed out that Cleo didn’t want to publicly share a video of her being abused and assaulted. Others responded that sinatraa also stated he had the video and claimed it proved his innocence, yet he wasn’t sharing it either.
“I mean if I got raped and fucked in the ass by big dick Johnny and I had it on video, I would just show the cops the video, ez clap go next?” Dafran responded.
This riled up the community even more. To many individuals, it appeared that Dafran was making a joke out of a serious topic like rape. He also seemed to be putting the blame on the victim as well as not believing her. While Dafran could have been attempting to “troll” people, many still called on Twitch to take action.
The ongoing criticism caused Dafran to tweet that he was “under attack” from “delusional Pokimane feminists.”
Currently under attack from the #metoo movement and delusional pokimane feminists. OMEGALUL
— Farmer Dafran (@dafran) May 17, 2021
“You can call him an alleged rapist, not fucking straight-up rapist, you crazy people. If he is found guilty then ye, rapist but not yet ffs,” Dafran said.
While fans replied that Dafran could support sinatraa all he wanted, blaming the victim and making fun of rape victims didn’t sit well with most people. On Reddit, users questioned why Dafran was so invested in the situation. Others mocked him for trying too hard to be “edgy” to appeal to younger fans.
Hours later, Dafran exclaimed on Twitter that people were spreading “misinformation” about him on Reddit. He continued to tweet that Riot “couldn’t find sinatraa guilty.”
Dafran is now back to streaming about farming, but the competitive gaming community is still riled up over his latest words. sinatraa hasn’t responded to the social media drama Dafran has created on his behalf.
