Sinatraa responds to community backlash after announcing plans to return to competitive play.
Days after announcing his intention to return to competitive VALORANT, Jay “Sinatraa” Won has released a statement surrounding his ban. Riot Games banned Sinatraa from professional play for six months following his failure to cooperate with an investigation into allegations of sexual assault.
Head of competitive operations, Alex Francois cited the difficulties of the investigation in a statement released. "It was determined that on at least two occasions Sinatraa misrepresented certain facts, made false statements and did not cooperate with the investigation in a way expected of a professional VALORANT esports player.”
After Riot's investigation ended with no definitive conclusion, the game developers left the case to appropriate law enforcement. However, there has been no further information on the allegations since then. Although Riot lifted the ban in September, the player only confirmed his return two days ago. His statement comes after several persons in the esports community expressed concerns about his return to the competitive stage.
Sinatraa denies SA charges
The Sentinels content creator posted a TwitLonger where he directly responded to reactions to his return to competitive VALORANT and events following the ban. He also admitted to emotionally hurting his former partner but denied sexually assaulting her.
Furthermore, he shared an email received from Riot clearing him to return to competitive VALORANT without any professional conduct training.
Competitive VALORANT return for Sinatraa
Even though Sinatraa will begin tryouts for teams, he revealed that his first choice was to return to Sentinels. The move seems likely after a report by Dot Esports confirmed that Sentinels practised without Zombs and were considering Sinatraa as a possible replacement. Moreover, the organization also started to post content with Sinatraa on their official pages.
After failing to qualify for Stage 1 Masters, Sentinels may look to change things up by adding Sinatraa or a completely new player. There has been a massive backlash in the community in response to this statement. It remains to be seen whether any team will pick up Sinatraa.
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