Scottish Valorant player Zander ‘Avexic’ Fraser has been let go from his esports organisation after being accused of sexual assault and grooming minors.
The 18-year-old was IGL (in-game leader) for Scottish organisation Skelp, who have this morning published a statement on the matter.
“Avexic no longer represents Skelp in any capacity,” Skelp said in this Twitlonger post. “We stand for being an open, welcoming and safe organisation and will continue to do that moving forward.
“For anyone impacted by a similar situation, we would urge you to use these very helpful resources: the National Domestic Abuse Helpline, Women’s Aid and Refuge.
“We won’t be commenting on the situation further while we investigate it from a legal perspective.”
Esports News UK understands Police Scotland is now carrying out an investigation regarding the matter.
Early this morning, Twitter user bebaberry_ published a Twitlonger detailing her alleged experiences with Avexic [content warning – sexual assault, grooming, rape].
She said she began dating Avexic when she was 15 years old, that he asked for nude and underage images from her and that apparently he ‘was into rape play and age play’.
“Avexic no longer represents Skelp in any capacity. We stand for being an open, welcoming and safe organisation and will continue to do that moving forward.”
Skelp
“The first time we met he forced me on several occasions to touch him and do things to him,” bebaberry said. “I wasn’t ready at all and I made him aware of this and said no every time. This continued every time we met, he would force me to do things then apologise over text and manipulate me into dropping it.
“He’s continued to sexually assault me, the most recent time being in November, I told him he was hurting me and I asked him to stop, he continued and told me afterwards he liked that I was crying and he liked that it felt like r*pe to him.
“Recently I’ve been thinking the relationship over, and after everything I’ve been through I decided to leave him and cut him off. My main goal is to prevent this happening again, I know how people tend to react to these things but I don’t think negative comments on either part will do any good.”
Bebaberry also said Avexic had allegedly dated a 13-year-old girl when he was aged around 16/17. When confronted about the girl being underage, Avexic allegedly said in the screenshots: “I’m not like that anymore.”
Avexic has since deleted his Twitter profile.
Avexic had performed in a number of Valorant esports tournaments, including the 2021 College Development Network Esports Scottish Cup, which he won with North East Scotland College. He’s also competed in VCT open qualifiers and the Valorant UK and Ireland Skirmish, which took place last year.
Last month, Riot Games announced Valorant Regional Leagues (VRLs) and Circuits for EMEA in 2022, including a UK, Ireland and Nordics league run by Promod Esports.
Avexic was due to play in the VRL and VCT with Skelp this year in what the org were calling ‘Scotland’s best Valorant team’.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
