Underaged relationship leads to VALORANT Game Changers coach release

FENNEL Female, the women’s VALORANT roster competing in Game Changers under the Japanese FENNEL organization, has swiftly terminated the contract of coach “hanpipe” after confirming internally that the coach had an “inappropriate relationship with a minor woman.”

In a statement posted to the org’s Twitter account, and translated via a user on the competitive VALORANT subreddit and reported by Dexerto, FENNEL said that hanpipe admitted to the relationship after the organization confirmed the story, while also discovering that he had concealed the incident from FENNEL. As a result of the relationship and the efforts to conceal it, FENNEL made the decision to terminate the coach’s contract.

Hanpipe had only recently been brought on to the organization just three days prior to being let go, alongside another coach. It was in the replies to the hiring announcement of hanpipe where the allegations first surfaced: reporter Gareso Takizawa replied to the announcement by FENNEL claiming they had proof that hanpipe had a sexual relationship with a minor and had engaged in efforts to cover it up.

As part of FENNEL’s announcement that hanpipe’s contract had been terminated, the organization said it will work on a system of performing checks on coaches and players prior to them joining to prevent another instance like this from happening again.

FENNEL is still in the process of putting together its complete FEENEL Female roster for the 2023 Game Changers season. In 2022, the FENNEL Female roster won both Game Changers events for Japan and East Asia but was then eliminated first at the international Game Changers championship. Three of its players left for the Game Changers divisions of DRX and ZETA DIVISION during the offseason.