The world of online gaming is often a daunting place for women. This is what the Twitch streamer “TaylorMorgan” had to realize. After a particularly nasty experience in Valorant, she reaches out to Riot.
What kind of request is this? The Twitch streamer TaylorMorgan reached out to Riot via X on May 13, 2024, to draw attention to toxic behavior in Valorant. She demanded that such players should be permanently banned from the game.
TaylorMorgan has been regularly streaming on Twitch since June 2021. She primarily showcases shooters, mainly Call of Duty and Valorant. Therefore, she is likely accustomed to the sometimes harsh interactions in competitive online games. However, a recent encounter was too much for the streamer.
Streamer fears: “Nothing will ever stop these men”
What exactly happened? In her post, TaylorMorgan shared a clip of an encounter she had in Valorant. In the video, a teammate asks the streamer whether she knows what it feels like to be raped.
When she answers no, he continues: “Okay, do you want to find out?”
The streamer asks the player several times if he means he wants to rape her. He replies that she is on the right track. When the player explains, “It’s not rape if I like it,” TaylorMorgan leaves the game. Now she is calling for harsher penalties for such players.
In the comments, the streamer reports that she received an XP penalty for leaving the match early (via X). She also fears that her teammate’s behavior might only lead to a three-day ban.
Instead of such behavior being punished so mildly, TaylorMorgan demands that such players should be permanently banned from the game via a hardware ban. According to the streamer, these players should never be allowed to play the game again.
You can find the streamer’s post here:
Streamer calls for hardware bans for offenders
In translation, TaylorMorgan writes:
I have never made such a desperate request as the one I am about to state, Riot.
You damn well need to do something. I am an incredibly strong person and have been streaming for a very, very long time. But absolutely nothing prepares you for someone saying that to you.
The suspensions are not enough. Nothing will ever stop these men from behaving this way as long as no hardware bans are imposed. They should never be able to play the game again.
I know you hear us. I know you see us. If this goes unpunished, I will take it as an active confirmation from you that you don’t give a damn about the women and minorities who play your game, and I will call for a boycott. This is simply not okay.
Streamer’s plea goes viral
There has not yet been a public response from the Riot channels on X. However, there are plenty of comments from users. The post has been viewed almost 10 million times, garnered 36,000 likes, and received over 9,000 comments. Many express solidarity with the streamer, share their sympathy, and demand a response from Riot.
But there are also those who, with their responses, rather confirm what TaylorMorgan and many other women experience: They say that such remarks are simply part of online gaming. Instead of leaving the match and ruining the game for their uninvolved teammates, the streamer should have simply used the mute function, some comments suggest.
This is why the situation in Valorant is particularly critical: Riot Games was involved in a sexism scandal in 2018. The company was said to have a culture similar to that of a fraternity.
As a counter-reaction to these circumstances, Riot has set the goal of particularly protecting women and minorities in Valorant.
In practice, however, this seems to pose significant difficulties for Riot, as many examples show.
Many female users report on X similar experiences to TaylorMorgan’s. Some games are virtually unplayable for women, or at least the voice chat is unusable. However, even in games that actually have a good reputation for their communities, there are ugly incidents: A player says she was treated undemocratically in Helldivers 2 because she is female
