The Dota 2 community was blown up again after Toby “TobiWan” Dawson was accused of sexual harassment and assault.
This comes right of similar allegations leveled against fellow Dota 2, commentator Grant “GranDgranT” Harris. Grant has since apologized and announced that he would be leaving the e-sports industry.
Dawson then gets to Twitter to condemn Harris’ alleged misconduct. He says “anyone involved in such actions should be held accountable”. However, several women in the Dota 2 community responded by accusing that he is part of the problem himself.
One of the women was Dota 2 cosplayer Meruna, She accused Dawson of sexually assaulting her while she slept. It was an incident she claimed happened nine years ago. Troels “SyndereN” Nielsen, Meruna’s boyfriend, has since dissociated himself from Dawson despite having been casting partners for many years.
Another woman is an artist named Botjira, she also claims she was pinned down by Dawson in a hotel room and “almost didn’t escape”.
Another person, ashnichrist, claimed to have evidence of Dawson making sexual advances on her in a series of text messages.
Dawson responded to the allegations via two Twitlonger messages, one of which was removed after several people described it as a non-apology. In his second message, he addressed several incidents in the past but denied outright Botjira’s allegation.
After the allegations were out, e-sports production company Beyond the Summit has severed ties with Dawson. Unfortunately, Code Red Esports has dropped him from its representation and Valve has removed his voice lines from The International 10 Battle Pass.
There are many expressed disappointment with Dawson, but there are others who came to his defense by pinning the blame on cancel culture. There even a comment blaming the women for not being careful enough around strangers.