• News

Sinatraa gets 6-month Valorant ban following investigation

In the wake of sexual assault allegations, Riot has taken action and suspended Jay 'Sinatraa' Won from competitive Valorant for six months.

Ozzie Mejia

May 17, 2021 1:40 PM

1

One of the biggest esports stories of 2020 was former Overwatch League MVP Jay 'Sinatraa' Won leaving the game entirely in order to play competitive Valorant. Since then, there have been sexual assault allegations levied against Won, leading to an internal investigation from Riot Games. That investigation has concluded and Riot has officially suspended Won from competitive Valorant for six months.

Riot issued its ruling on the Valorant website (via Upcomer). The official ruling reads:

Jay "Sinatraa" Won has violated Rule 8.1 of the Valorant Global Competition Policy and will be suspended for six months (which is considered to have begun with his administrative suspension on March 10, 2021), continuing through Sept. 10, 2021 (end of the Stage 3 Challenger season and final Masters event). He will be eligible to return for Last Chance Qualifiers and Champions.

Furthermore, Won is required to complete professional conduct training prior to being able to return to play.

Riot first opened its case after Won's ex-girlfriend, Cleo Hernandez, filing a police report detailing alleged sexual abuse. Won has denied the allegations. He was then suspended indefinitely for the duration of the investigation. Riot, in its context statement, did not definitively confirm any of Hernandez's allegations, but made sure to express disapproval over Won's conduct during the investigation itself.

While the investigation did not come to a definitive conclusion on the underlying allegations, the Competitive Operations team had serious concerns with Sinatraa's conduct during the course of the investigation. 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. Of note, Sinatraa's public commitment on social media to provide the full audio and video clip referenced in the original post was never fulfilled. Cooperation in these investigations is of the utmost importance, especially when the nature of the allegations is as serious as sexual assault. This behavior will not be tolerated by Valorant Esports.

Won is eligible to return on September 10. As noted in the above ruling, that means he could be back in time for the Last Chance Qualifiers and Champions event. However, Riot is not ruling out further action. If new revelations come up, Won could be subject to further punishment.

The Overwatch League, where Sinatraa had won a regular season MVP award and holds an Overwatch League championship with the San Francisco Shock, recently took its own action. Sinatraa's MVP Zarya skin was removed from Overwatch and the League offered information on how players could get a full refund.

The official verdict from law enforcement regarding the Sinatraa investigation is still forthcoming. We will continue to follow this story as it continues to unfold.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?