LESLAO apologizes for racial slur

Team Soniqs’ Rodrigo “LESLAO” Santos faced recently a heavy critique from the Dota 2 community after it was revealed that his in-game effigy had been named after a racist slur. LESLAO later apologized on Twitter, admitting the name was “inappropriate and hurtful”. Despite the apology, his team Soniqs have now parted ways with him.

Soniqs are not having a good time right now. They are one of the four teams that have been eliminated in the group stage of The International 2022 and now, the organization has also been impacted by a racist incident. 

On the same day as they left TI, people in the Dota 2 community found out that LESLAO had named his in-game moniker in quite a racist fashion. As soon as the information broke out, the player apologized in a short tweet, admitting he was wrong. LESLAO claimed that he “carelessly” wrote the nickname many years ago and then forgot about it until it was brought to his attention today.

LESLAO kicked by Soniqs

In the match against BOOM Esports at The International 11, Soniqs were on the verge of defeat when one of the observers came across LESLAO’s “Heroic Effigy of Triumph” and his name along with the N-word. Although it was visible for a short time, it still caused a strong backlash. Following a few Reddit threads, the player tweeted that the name was “inappropriate and hurtful” and apologized for not noticing it sooner and took it down.

However, this apology was not enough, as Soniqs have made the decision to release LESLAO from his contract. The organization explained the decision in a statement that it expects professionalism from its players and that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards racism or discrimination. With that, LESLAO has been released from Soiqs, effective immediately. 

At the moment it is still unclear whether Valve or PGL will punish Soniqs or the player.

Not an isolated case

Unfortunately, this is not the first time something like this has happened in Dota 2. A recent example of this is beastcoast’s Héctor Antonio “K1” Rodriguez, who verbally assaulted Kim “Febby” Yong-min during a Dota 2 ladder match over the summer. When beastcoast took on Thunder Awaken in the final series of Tour 3 of the Dota Pro Circuit, the consequences were tangible. Valve denied beastcoast’s permission to compete and play with K1 due to the racist incident.

Header: Soniqs