Valorant pro Katherine ‘LunarKats’ So was dropped by TSM just days after they signed her to their all-female team, and has since explained it was because of a Snapchat from 2019 during an apology stream.
LunarKats was one of five members who joined TSM on March 17 as part of their all-women roster.
The squad was competing in the VCT Game Changers tournament, and had qualified for next weekend’s major event. However, just three days after signing the team, TSM are on the hunt for a new fifth after dropping LunarKats.
TSM announced the roster change on March 20.
“Today we’ve agreed to mutually part ways with LunarKats. We’re currently looking for a sub to avoid having to pull out of the VCT Game Changers Series,” they said in a tweet.
Today we've agreed to mutually part ways with LunarKats.
We're currently looking for a sub to avoid having to pull out of the VCT Game Changers Series.
— TSM (@TSM) March 21, 2021
The circumstances around the sudden dismissal immediately raised suspicions in the community. LunarKats’ was streaming when the announcement went live, and abruptly ended the broadcast.
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“Guys, I have to go do something real quick. I will be back maybe later, but I have to cut my stream off short,” she said just 45 minutes into her March 20 stream.
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Speculation around LunarKats’ departure from TSM was allegedly been linked to a claim of harassment that was leveled against her back in August 2020, but during a short apology stream on Monday, March 22, she explained it was actually due to a Snapchat video from 2019.
“I’m not proud about what I said at all, and even then when I posted the Snapchat video I deleted it hours later and I even said that what I said was out of line,” the tearful streamer said. “People who I thought were hurt by it I even DM’d them at the time to have a more productive talk about what was said.”
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She added that TSM was made aware after someone who had video of the Snapchat saved contacted the esports org about it.
LunarKats spent about 30 minutes discussing and answering questions about her release from TSM during the brief Monday stream, but didn’t provide any details about her future plans in esports or streaming going forward.