Streamer Jason “JasonR” Ruchelski recently called out friend and former pro CSGO player Tarik “tarik” Celik for not standing up for JasonR when he was accused of sexism earlier this year.
In February 2022, multiple women came forward to accuse JasonR of purposefully dodging women in Valorant games. Other women also stated that JasonR will mute any female players on his team. When JasonR claimed that he wasn’t avoiding matches and that his game apparently kept crashing, pro Valorant player Annie “Annie Dro” Roberts accused him of “gaslighting” his fans.
As the accusations continued, JasonR faced immense backlash from the streaming community. JasonR claimed that he was facing death threats and other forms of harassment. And he wondered why his friend tarik wasn’t defending him publicly.
JasonR and tarik argue on Twitch over sexist behavior
In a recent game on Valorant, JasonR and former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star tarik were paired up for a match. During the match on March 26, JasonR called tarik an “L friend.” This prompted tarik to question JasonR on his statement after the game ended.
“You chose to stay silent. You have not gone out and told people and given a character witness of me,” JasonR said.
But tarik was quick to respond that there was “undeniable” evidence against JasonR that pointed to the accusations of sexist behavior being true. tarik told JasonR he didn’t want to be associated with that kind of behavior.
“It’s your personal reason, your private matter, but I don’t agree with it and I think it is weird,” tarik said.
The heated argument lasted for an hour with the two streamers going back and forth during the emotional stream. JasonR continued to accuse tarik of not having his back, bringing up that he was even receiving death threats while tarik stayed silent. tarik responded that he didn’t approve of death threats but he felt JasonR’s behavior was “not normal” and didn’t want to get involved.
“That’s my stance on it, and if I play with you it seems like I support that behavior. But, I’ve never been on my stream talking s— about you or saying anything bad. I’ve never been here like, ‘F— Jason, he’s doing this s—. F— Jason, why is he acting like that?’ No, I’m quiet, but I’ve said I don’t support it so I’m not going to play with [you],” tarik said.
Gaming community responds to JasonR and tarik drama
Many people in the streaming community backed up tarik, including League of Legends veteran Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng calling tarik a “gigachad.” Some others still believe JasonR to be innocent in the face of the multiple allegations, and are proposing that JasonR apparently avoids female gamers out of respect for his wife.
This defense didn’t sit right with Blaire “QTCinderella,” who pointed out the potential hypocrisy of such a position on Twitter. In the tweet, QTCinderella joked that she would “hate to disrespect my wife by playing games with women,” then shared a screenshot of JasonR liking sexually suggestive photos of other women on Twitter.
Popular female streamer Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa chipped in as well.
“He might not make it through the night now, QT,” Amouranth said.
Near the end of the argument between JasonR and tarik, tarik could be seen holding his head in his hands in frustration. He said that he truly didn’t know what to say anymore as the argument dragged on for an hour.
“Like I said, just end it. Stop making it a real thing and just find a way to not let it affect you anymore. That’s my final point. That’s my advice to you,” tarik said.
JasonR agreed that the argument was going nowhere. For now, tarik and JasonR are done discussing the issue, but it seems the broader community discussion has just started.
