As a woman in this space, I understand the importance of public displays of support or corroboration. It is this support that allowed women to feel safe in sharing their stories in the past week. Since I had also experienced Zyori engaging in predatory behaviors — which he has since admitted — I felt morally obligated to show Ashni my support.
We need to be able to have these conversations openly and with nuance. If we make all cases black and white, nobody will ever survive a wave of revelations. This lack of nuance is cancel culture. It sorts the world into victims and perpetrators, truth-tellers and liars, people who did nothing wrong and people who are beyond redemption. We keep all the “angels” and ditch all the “monsters”.
That’s just not how the world works. There are many conversations to be had that don’t involve “cancelling” either Zyori or me. If we want to build a better community, these are the conversations we need to have.
None of my statements accused Zyori of rape, nor did I call for his removal from the community. I have repeated that I do not want that, and I have full consent from Ashni to say that she does not want that either. That doesn’t mean that Zyori did not abuse his position to pressure Ashni or me. He just does not seem to have done so knowingly or with malice.
Between my Twitter thread and before Zyori’s video, I spoke to many of my Dota 2 colleagues, including HotBid and Trent, and I told them that I sincerely believe that he does not deserve to be “canceled”. This has always been my position.
This is especially true because even though I amplified Ashni’s experience, no other women have come forward about Zyori. This is part of “listening to all sides” before rushing to conclusions. Now we can go forward and fix why (instead of how) this abuse happened.
Zyori has articulated this very well in his statements, and I would encourage you all to go watch them. We can all move forward better off thanks to Zyori’s actions having been made public, and having him account for them. This helps men and women.
If Zyori had been given this example ten years ago, he wouldn’t have made the mistakes he now regrets. His example is vital for making a stronger community and for changing the underlying work culture which contributed, including the culture Zyori describes having experienced at Beyond the Summit during that period.
There’s many, many more stories like this one involving many, many more men on a range between Zyori and GrandGrant. If we don’t let people speak safely about their experiences, how will we ever change the culture which enables this abuse in the first place?
