Melanie “meL” Capone provides her side of the story regarding statements of Tier 1 VCT teams not wanting to scrim with a woman.
There has been quite a stir in the VALORANT community with claims from Rod "Slasher" Breslau regarding Tier 1 teams and Melanie "meL" Capone. He has since clarified his statements, but not before many took to social media with anger.
The situation arose when Slasher stated on a podcast that some Tier 1 VALORANT players flat out refused to play with a woman. And that is why meL has not found herself in the VCT. Now meL has delivered her side of the story.
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V1 meL comments on Slasher's statements concerning Tier 1 VCT players
Esports.gg reached out to meL, as many others probably did. The request for comment was not returned, but rather she took to X to post her thoughts. A lengthy statement cleared up any issues and proved herself as the professional we all know she is.
The former IGL of the Cloud9 White Game Changers dynasty now leads Version1. She recounts teams not wanting to pay a buyout to C9 and the org stating she is a valuable asset as they applied for partnership with Riot Games and the VCT.
Following that, she starts to address the situation of T1 teams not wanting to play with her because she is a woman:
"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."
Then meL states that she quickly moved on from it, as to not be "viewed as a liability to other teams." It looks like one incident was claimed to be many, which caused the initial uproar. meL was "mortified" to be at the center of this all and just wants to focus on Game Changers.
While the issue at hand may have been blown out of proportion, it doesn't mean the undermining of women and marginalized genders does not happen in esports. You can read the full statement on her X post. It includes further clarification into the comments made by Slasher. And a thank you to the community who came out to support her.
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