Motif Esports, a small UK esports organisation that participated in Valorant and Rocket League, have disbanded after their women’s Valorant team, Violet, suffered alleged abuse within the org.
Two of the women, Czech Republic player Barbora ‘Rebecca’ Řezáčová and Scottish player Joanne Rae, shared their experiences in Twitlonger posts here and here respectively. The team have left together and are now known as Karma Valorant.
Joanne said: “In my time at Motif, I was sexually harassed by the org founder [Jack ‘Jaws’ Willis]. It was “jokes” for him, but it wasn’t for me and wouldn’t be for anyone else either (I saw it happen to many girls with my own eyes). Also, telling one of your players that she is ‘boosted’ to one of her teammates and one hour before a big VCT game isn’t the most professional.
“I was constantly guilt tripped because I wouldn’t duo queue with him, I got sent unprofessional messages about other players etc. I would like to thank some people in Motif for being nice and welcoming but unfortunately it had to be the founder himself that caused these issues.”
Sources have told Esports News UK that Motif’s Scottish co-owner Keiran ‘Rossi’ Grigor stood up for the women on the team and did attempt to fix the situation.
Keiran told Esports News UK: “The org is 100% gone, the founder has blocked everyone and deactivated everything. As to where I go next, I have a few options and can’t fully comment, but I can say I’m not going anywhere from esports.
“In terms of the situation, I was never aware and once Joanne brought it up to me, I gathered evidence to show everyone in order to make their own decision and I left immediately.”
Rebecca added that the women’s team were not allowed to have their own private chat channel in Motif’s Discord server, the org were not aware of the women’s official matches, often interrupting them mid-tournament, and that the owner Jack would disrespect his own players, discourage them and talk back at them. She also recounted incidents of sexual harassment and racism.
“In my time at Motif, I was sexually harassed by the org founder. It was “jokes” for him, but it wasn’t for me and wouldn’t be for anyone else either – I saw it happen to many girls with my own eyes.”
Joanne, Karma Valorant
“The organisation is from the United Kingdom, therefore most of the staff has also been UK,” Rebecca said. “There is a lot of racism going towards non-UK players. In particular our Turkish player, Mercy. She had to deal with targeted racism towards her, which has been shown publicly on a Twitch stream.
“The people tried to justify racism and did not want to accept their own mistake. Even after she was apologised to, the racist remarks continued and she has never felt comfortable in the organisation itself again.
“Us Czech members of the team have been laughed at for our English, due to the fact that we do not have a perfect accent and because English is not our first language. Especially our coach Jarda [Jaroslav Mihál from the Czech Republic], because he also has a Czech accent when speaking English. There is nothing wrong with that though and again, it just made us feel less worthy and very uncomfortable.”
The other Violet players, Lami (Russian, but living in the UK), Mercy (Turkish) and Oline ‘d0llie’ Simmons (Danish) have supported their teammates’ accounts on Twitter.
Mercy said: “I am really sad that I had experienced racism in Motif. Also I’m so glad that as a team we always supported each other and will continue as @karmaVALORANT.”
Esports News UK understands Motif’s other Valorant team, male side Motif Blue, have also left and the org is seemingly no more.
Motif founder Jack ‘Jaws’ Willis posted this tweet before making his Twitter account private:
The @MotifEsports Twitter account has also been deleted.
The Valorant community has rallied around the women’s team since they shared their stories earlier today, with UK Valorant host and journalist Yinsu Collins speaking up:
Dan ‘eLSD’ Ellis, CEO of UK esports organisation The Goose House, also sent a message of support to the women’s team and offered a potential new home.
Could they play for The Goose House in the future?
This story on the Motif Esports allegations was first seen by Esports News UK on Upcomer.
Last weekend, UK orgs Guild and Tenstar finished in the top three in the women’s Valorant Game Changers EMEA Series 1 tournament, as G2 Gozen cheekily celebrated first place by carrying rubbish bags with the Guild logo on them.
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.
