I was fully expecting the next news article to come from this event would be a summary of our event and how proud we are of the 4th place finish and champions of France title we are walking away with. Sadly, we need to step away from that cheerful story and tell you about the shocking events that took place last night.
Our girls decided they needed a night out after a very long, exhausting event. They travelled to a hotel nearby to the event where they joined a couple of teams to relax. During the night, the team coach of iGamerz, Aude ‘sarah‘ Prigent started messaging Sophia “Kim.” Benfakir rude, racist and insulting messages about the team and family, trying to provoke a reaction from her.
These messages went on for a few hours and were targeted towards Sophia ‘Kim.‘ Benfakir as Aude ‘sarah‘ Prigent wanted Kim to react to make herself and the team look bad. Towards the end of the night Aude ‘sarah‘ Prigent told Sophia ‘Kim.‘ Benfakir that she was outside where they were. Our girls went outside to talk about all these messages Aude ‘sarah‘ Prigent had been sending, but she was nowhere to be seen. As the team waited and then began to walk back toward the hotel, next thing they knew, a car pulled up outside the front of the entrance and several girls jumped out and began walking aggressively towards them. The next minute another car pulls up behind our girls to trap them and join the group from the first car.
Some insults were exchanged, and from nowhere the first punch was thrown from the group of attackers towards our smallest member of the team Meyssa ‘Missa‘ Bellouati. Some of our girls stepped in to stop, and with this they were punched and kicked to the ground and continually kicked once they were down. Being outnumbered with around 10 attackers against 5 of our teammates, Aude ‘sarah‘ Prigent stayed out of the fight but was directing the attackers on who to hit and kick. Abigail ‘Abiii‘ Glover was a little bit infront of the group and when realising what was happening ran to get help within the lobby of the hotel. A brave passer-by and a number of people ran out to protect our girls from the attack and break up the fight. As the police arrived, the attackers jumped back into their vehicles and drove away. One of the guests from the hotel ran out of the lobby and had time to catch the number plate of their car on camera.
The girls were in complete shock at this visciously planned attack, and being baited out in a cowardly move by the attackers. Thankfully all our players are fine, some with a few cuts, bumps and bruises, but for the most part they got off lightly. But the situation could have turned out a lot worse if it weren’t for the help of the passers-by and running for help into the hotel lobby.
A full statement has been made to the Paris Police and luckily with the picture of the car’s number plate, we hope justice will be served.
The fact that this has happened over a game is not the thing that disturbs me the most, it is that it was a planned and motivated attack towards the Reason Gaming Female team. Taking it as far as ambushing our players with a group that outnumbers them 2 to 1, with the aim of causing them harm. I can only hope that ESWC and other events take actions towards the players involved in this and the organisations that these players are part of cut all ties with players that condone such actions.
