Valorant Game Changer player Melanie “meL” Capone has finally responded to reports of being denied opportunities in T1 because of her gender.
Opinions have been pouring in from all directions since esports journalist Rod Breslau shared on
Sean Gares’ stream
that storied GC player meL has been denied trial with top teams due to being a woman. According to him, at least one player didn’t want to play with a woman, preventing meL from getting to the trial stage, let alone joining a co-ed team.
Now, meL has set the record straight, confirming that it did happen “at least once” in her career, where she was denied the opportunity to trial. However, the pro player didn’t want this information to be public.
“There was at least one situation where I was being considered but it was soon communicated back to me from a T1 team that a player was not comfortable playing with a woman. I let it rest and have not spoken about it so as not to risk being viewed as a liability to other teams,”
meL clarified.
She did elaborate that she has been turned down trial for a multitude of reasons, including being “too valuable of an asset” to be released from an organization.
However, she didn’t want to mention the discrimination to prevent being a liability to T1 teams. According to her, it’s already a tall order to get a shot in co-ed teams, and now her comments have been made public without her consent.
meL addresses trial denial reports
Despite the repercussions, meL said she wanted to come out and set the record straight for women who may have faced similar treatment. Since the report was criticized by the community, denying this as a real event, meL said she had to validate women’s experiences in Valorant.
“I would not be using my platform responsibly if I attempted to deny any bad faith actors or the stories of many other women who have shared their negative experiences in Valorant and other esports,” meL explained.
While she did confirm at least one event of discrimination, meL lauded the men in the Valorant community for being supportive and helpful at most times.
Fariha Bhatti
About Fariha Bhatti
Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.
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