A coach embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal has now departed from the Serbian esports organization Rising Hope, and this has been officially confirmed.
Earlier this week, Rising Hope’s all-female Valorant team and their head coach Jehiel resigned after a sexual harassment allegation was levelled against another coach, named Simons.
In a detailed Twitlonger statement, Jehiel recounted how Simons would habitually threaten to expose his genitals, despite numerous pleas for him to desist.
“To them, it might seem like an internal joke or something, but as the coach of female players, I deemed it inappropriate,” Jehiel asserted. “Consequently, I confronted him, informing him that it was not a good joke and that he should refrain from such behavior as it was not at all amusing.”
Why we left Rising Hope
Read: https://t.co/HN0knShF6P
— Jehiel (@PizzaFPS) October 9, 2022
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It is alleged that Simons did indeed expose his genitals during a Discord video call while the team was training. At this point, Jehiel and the all-female team unanimously decided to leave Rising Hope.
“After the scrimmage, the team and I held a meeting and reviewed the scrimmage footage. We discovered that Simons had been consuming alcohol with it being visible on the Discord cam, and he had behaved inappropriately multiple times throughout the scrimmage, not just the instance that my players caught him in,” Jehiel disclosed.
The alleged incident is said to have occurred on September 27th. A few days later, on October 5th, Rising Hope tweeted simply to “say goodbye” to the Valorant team without acknowledging the incident. The organization also noted that coaches Simons and mdvjk remained in the Serbian organization and would form a new lineup.
However, Rising Hope has now affirmed that Simons is no longer a member of the esports organization.
“We deeply regret that such an action was taken by one of our members. We wish to clarify that we did not receive sufficient information, as certain members of the organization withheld it from the general management,” a tweet from Rising Hope reads.
The post further states that “everyone involved in this incident has been fined”, and offers apologies to former players and “the entire community”.
That being said, Jehiel’s statement elaborates on how she and the team approached Rising Hope co-owner Lazar. Initially, Lazar wanted to retain Simons as he is “a big star”.
She wrote: “Next, we reached out to Lazar, one of the co-owners of Rising Hope, and informed him of what had transpired. We initiated a discussion about removing Simons from the team due to his actions. We informed Lazar that if he did not remove Simons, we would be the ones to leave the organization. Initially, Lazar expressed a desire to keep Simons in the organization, citing the reason that he ‘is a big star’. However, he eventually agreed with the team’s sentiments regarding Simons’ behavior and assured us that he would not be joining the team as a coach in the future.”
As DotEsports reports, rumors have subsequently emerged regarding other aspects of Simons’ conduct, including his failure to pay players their prize winnings and his controversial views on the war in Ukraine.
The Rising Hope apology comes several days after it announced the launch of its Rising Hope University, offering opportunities with a professional esports coach – an opportunity not accessible to women as “this time we are only recruiting men”.
Rising Hope is a participant in Riot’s VCT Game Changers, a program aimed at making esports more inclusive for women.
This incident serves as a blatant example of the sexual harassment and misogyny that women in esports encounter.
“Personally, I have been traumatized by what occurred. The shock that my players experienced is profound, causing me countless sleepless nights,” Jehiel stated.
“We merely hope that these kinds of predators will be barred from the scene, as this is what is ruining the community and giving the gaming industry a negative image.”
