Can we stop it with the character assassination?
Most the top comments on the recent Reddit thread discussing my interview with esports.com are not about the strike or the rot eating away at the DPC but about my character, with hundreds of upvotes on comments that are lies, half-truths, or plain ignorance. Let’s make a few things very clear:
- I never accused Zyori of rape — that was a whole different woman.
- Zyori never denied a single thing I said and in fact backed a bunch of them up. (original video source deleted unfortunately)
- Zyori never lost his job and casted Dota for at least a year more before turning to NFTs.
- I never tried to get Zyori fired and explicitly asked BTS not to fire him
- Since nobody can let the fact that they don’t know what happened go: At TI5 Zyori escalated his pushy behaviour all night, culminating in grabbing two hands full of ass and grinding his boner into me on the dancefloor, none of which I was interested in.
If you don’t like my casting, that’s fine. But the amount of people who bond over and revel in their dislike of me is nauseating, especially when a lot of it is based in speculation that’s been going on for three years. At this point people are actively ignoring industry abuses to circlejerk about how much they hate me.
I’ve tried to stay out of fighting the slander because a) the truth is out there for anyone who cares to read it, and b) nobody likes a permanent victim, but at this point I’ve had enough.
I have been a whistleblower for years. I’ve mostly done it behind the scenes, alerting Valve and TOs to dodgy tournaments and match fixers. But it is my belief that some things should not be swept under the rug, and that we can all win once things change. BTS (regular) had some real introspection to do on their company culture, and we got the wonderful NatTea and Sheepsticked out of it (among things). BTS PT should not be allowed to save face at the cost of all the people they’ve screwed over, and I’m hoping that as a result we’ll see more responsible TOs in SA in the future.
Every time I speak up its costs me money, job opportunities and friends. The only thing I seem to have gained from it is a reputation as troublemaker who exaggerates stuff for attention, when both times I’ve gone public so far I’ve very much understated the situation. Most talent never speak up at all because they’re afraid of rocking the boat, and what’s been happening to me is a good example of why they’re right to be scared.
I don’t give a rat’s ass if you like me or not. Just stop the lies, and stop making excuses for companies that are failing to do right by Dota 2.
— Kips out
(PS: If anyone spreads the story in the future, please link them this post. I’m tired of this story popping up everywhere while barely being challenged.)
ADDENDUM:
“I don’t know if Ashni used to describe how she felt about her experience was the right one. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened, and I am not her PR agent either. I, as someone who was raped back when she was 17, would not have used the word “rape” to describe her experience myself.
She’s an unreliable narrator and a grifter. But even liars speak the truth from time to time. And then, as I do now, I saw no no reason to doubt any of the actual accusations she made because I had a very similar experience with the same guy. Many people were calling her a liar, so I struck back and said that she spoke the truth.
My tweet did not include a PR disclaimer stating that it was not meant as a wholesale endorsement of every single word she used to describe her own experiences, and I’m sorry for any confusion this might have caused. I did not in my wildest dreams imagine that the use of the word “true” would be used to crucify me for her verbiage. The only thing I regret about the entire saga is underestimating how far people would be willing to go to pick apart a victim’s statement.”
