VALORANT Twitter blew up Saturday night and Sunday as the drama surrounding streamer Jason “JasonR” Ruchelski reignited, this time with Tarik “tarik” Celik in the mix.
JasonR had previously been in the public eye for refusing to play matches with women or muting them in-game. The controversy bubbled up again almost a month later when JasonR accused tarik of being an “L friend” in a ranked match.
“He’s an L streamer,” JasonR said during the game. “He’s an L friend.”
Longtime friends from their days in the Counter-Strike FACEIT Pro League circuit, JasonR and tarik got in a nearly hour long argument about tarik’s position on the controversy. Since becoming a full-time streamer, tarik’s viewership and popularity have skyrocketed to the point where he is averaging more than 20,000 viewers.
Tarik mostly stayed out of the initial burst of backlash against JasonR, except to say he didn’t agree with what his friend was doing and that it was “kinda weird.” But this time around, he did get involved after being called out by JasonR. After the match, they got into a pre-game lobby together where they hashed it out. Tarik focused on trying to understand how he was an “L friend” and JasonR outlined his point of view.
It's such bullshit to paint the image that *viewership* is the reason that I don't "back up a homie" or support a friend in something controversial. I don't give a fuck about that, if I agree with your POV then I will 100% back you up. Why support something I disagree with?
— tarik (@tarik) March 27, 2022
To summarize the nearly hour long conversation, here were some of the main talking points:
- JasonR acknowledged that he does in fact avoid women in VALORANT ranked games.
- JasonR said he does this because he “respects his relationship with his wife” and doesn’t want people overreacting because he’s playing VALORANT with another woman.
- Tarik explained he doesn’t agree with what JasonR is doing and isn’t willing to condone it, but that his differing perspective doesn’t make him a bad friend.
- JasonR said he believed that tarik should act as a character witness, saying that JasonR is not sexist or misogynistic since tarik has met both him and his wife.
- JasonR said he thought tarik should’ve “had his back.”
- JasonR said he thought the reason tarik isn’t defending him is because tarik blew up on Twitch.
- Tarik said it has nothing to do with viewership and only with saying what he feels is right or wrong.
- Tarik said he never actively slandered JasonR and instead abstained from the conversation because he felt that JasonR was in the wrong.
The conversation went in circles while other streamers and pro players sent tarik encouragement and jokes in equal measure to his DMs. There was no real conclusion to the argument beyond both streamers agreeing they don’t see eye-to-eye.
Early on Monday, JasonR posted a TwitLonger with an apology at the end. He said he would no longer be avoiding the “potentially toxic situations” he felt would be hard on his wife — the presumption being he will no longer dodge matches and mute women in-game.
“There are people making false allegations off of out of context information,” he said. “I wish nothing but peace and love for people and ask for a touch of understanding. I am sorry.”
Taking accountability
Read: https://t.co/vxYZ99S8hy
— JASONR (@JasonRuchelski) March 28, 2022
VALORANT Twitter reacts to JasonR and tarik
As all this beef played out, gaming Twitter was reacting. VALORANT pros, Counter-Strike pros, streamers and many more tweeted out their opinions, memes and hot takes on the argument.
.@Zellsis really representing all of us during the Tarik/JasonR argument pic.twitter.com/9RuCk6X5rd
— Roxanne "Lux" Calura ✧ (@RougeLuxy) March 27, 2022
the JasonR stuff is actually max copium. If you replace "girl" in what he's doing with "black person" or "homosexual" how is there any other interpretation of except for sexism?
have a lot of respect to @tarik for being a gigachad
— Yiliang Peng (@Doublelift1) March 27, 2022
JasonR to Tarik: I'm not misogynistic…
JasonR 3 seconds later: Don't be a f*ckin girl about it…
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/ACu7g1GhZR
— Full Squad Gaming (@fullsquadgaming) March 27, 2022
of all the tarik, jasonr drama from last night, this has to be the highlight pic.twitter.com/8bQyYpPI6I
— hotlaps (@SirHotLaps) March 27, 2022
Even tarik go in on the action with a meme of his own on Monday.
— tarik (@tarik) March 28, 2022
Trending
