After HenryG, several women also raised their voices against the Dota 2 commentator GranDGranT. Evil Geniuses reacted to the news and fired him.
So far only one incident has been revealed about the Dota 2 commentator and streamer Grant "GranDGranT" Harris. Several women claimed he sexually harassed them. Things got worse for the caster as more and more people started to take a stand. Evil Geniuses also cut ties with Harris and fired him, so he's no longer one of the streamers for the NA team.
Effective immediately, Grant "GranDgranT" Harris has been released and is no longer a member of Evil Geniuses.We have a zero-tolerance workplace policy, and take any accusation of harassment, or a violation of our policies handbook, seriously.
— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) June 22, 2020
The organization hired the commentator some time ago - even though incidents of this kind must have been known about him before and during his time at EG. In 2017, GranDGranT joined Evil Geniuses, a year after harassing cofactorstrudel at an after-show party of The International. He held her down, she had to fight him with all her might in order to get away. Although she herself describes the event today as "snow from yesterday", more and more accusations are being made.
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Former coach and analyst Anthony "scant" Hodgson brought up Grant's story with former commentator Natalie "LlamaDownUnder", whom he allegedly harassed to such an extent that she decided to leave the Dota 2 scene. Grant harassed her repeatedly until she filed for a restraining order. She went to court against the commentator and was proved right. The reaction? None. Hardly anyone speaks out against GranDGranT up until now there were no serious consequences regarding his work. Grant claims he has changed but nobody has taken his side yet. scant suspects something:
When Llama took legal action against Grant, he was supported by many senior talents in the space. This is the boys club. These are the gatekeepers. This is why we are only ever getting excited about one women casting Dota at a time. The space is toxic.
— Anthony Hodgson (@scantzor) June 22, 2020
The esports or at least Dota 2 scene is a men's club, scant says. According to scant men in the industry kept covering for each other so nobody could say a thing. Many of GranDGranT's colleagues knew about his misconduct and accepted it. Scant demands that this must all change, as it has been going on for too long:
We've all been far too quiet for far too long about Grandgrant. He has for years shown a consistent pattern of behaviour of harassing & degrading women. Most notable case we know about is LlamaDownUnder. She was a fast-rising Dota 2 caster. And then she wasn't. Grant did that.
— Anthony Hodgson (@scantzor) June 22, 2020
But what does GranDGranT say in his defense? Even before Evil Geniuses' announcement, he published his own post in which he apologized. He said he had acted wrong and hurt people. As a consequence, he will withdraw from the Dota 2 scene for a long time and might not return at all. A drastic consequence, which he probably did not choose himself, but who would hire a commentator after such accusations?
ill be Leaving Dota and the Esports Scene For A long time if not permanent. I dont want to make this about me though, I want to Say, I hope the people who dont feel safe do feel safer, and I hope Dota becomes an overall better esport over the upcoming years.
— Grant Harris (@GranDGranT) June 22, 2020
After HenryG was already publicly accused of sexual assault by his ex-girlfriend, GranDGranT is the second man in esports to be accused of clear misconduct via Twitter within a few hours. The #metoo movement seems to have found a way into the esports industry, but is it a coincidence that all of these accusations are coming out just now? What stopped people from speaking out earlier? We might never find the answers to those questions. The only thing we can expect further down the line will be more accusations and people losing their jobs as a result of what they did in their personal life.
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