Valorant pro accuses Dafran of “harassment” following tournament ban

After Daniel ‘Dafran’ Francesca received a lifetime ban from Solary tournaments following a Valorant toxicity incident, Damien ‘HyP’ Souville has responded to the backlash he received from the player and his community.

Like soap in the shower, esports drama can easily get out of hand. Especially in a new scene like Valorant’s, as we’ve now seen develop in the chaotic beef between former Overwatch League players HyP and Dafran.

What started as a scheduling miscommunication quickly escalated into personal insults and, eventually, lifetime bans for Dafran from the tournament organizers, Solary, and the team he was supposed to be playing for, Prodigy.

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“I’ve already been trash-talked in my career, as every player, it’s part of the game. But this kind of behavior live on stream…encouraging his community to trash talk the opponent teams on social media. This is harassment and this has nothing to do in esports.”

As HyP explains in a TwitLonger, the situation rapidly deteriorated to the point where Dafran’s community raised sharper pitchforks than most are comfortable enduring.

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And, to an extent, Dafran too became aware that the drama had gone too far. Following the bans, the popular streamer found himself grouped with Evan ‘DRG’ Depauw, a 16-year-old player for Solar, in a competitive Valorant match and, egged on by a rabid Twitch chat, proceeded to throw the game.

• Read more: Dafran explodes after Valorant tournament hands him lifetime ban

Eventually DRG resorted to simply asking Dafran to “stop please” in the team chat, after which he proceeded to calm down a little bit and apologize, responding “ok, my bad. Solary suck, you not suck,” before later telling his chat to stop attacking the innocent player and letting everyone know he had gone too far.

While relieving that the saga’s final, uncomfortable drama finished with an apology, the ire aimed at HyP from Dafran and his community remains in awkward limbo—as any personal insults that result from miscommunications are likely to.

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At present, the known chronology is as follows: a week before the match, Solary notified teams, in a Discord channel that Prodigy had not joined, that the time for Dafran’s match against HyP’s team would be moved up. Prodigy was unaware and thusly over an hour late, which would qualify for forfeit typically—but HyP’s team was still willing to play, but with a one-map advantage since they had prior engagements for that evening. 

HyP and his teammates tried contacting Prodigy, but found out Dafran was still streaming, at which point Mathieu ‘LaAw’ Plantin called him “irresponsible” and “selfish” on Twitter. Upon hearing of the one-map advantage, Dafran then let loose (along with his community) upon the tournament organizers and HyP. 

Following the rage, HyP’s team and the tournament organizers agreed to reschedule but with Dafran ineligible to play. After further toxicity, Solary and Prodigy both permanently banned the Danish hitscan maestro from any of their events.

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The entire ordeal is as messy as it gets. The above covers everything that can be proven, but other details remain mysterious. 

For example, Brandon ‘Seagull’ Larned was under the impression that there were insults in deleted Tweets from HyP’s team that triggered Dafran. And on Prodigy teammate Oscar ‘Mixwell’ Canellas’ stream, there seemed to be a moment in which Solary and HyP’s team were willing to reschedule for the next day—with Dafran still eligible to play.

• Read more: Valorant bans could extend to other Riot titles in the future

Ultimately, following the extent of toxicity in personal messages and on social media, bans were levied and Prodigy still ended up beating HyP’s team 2-1 with a substitute in play.