In an emotional statement on a Twitch stream earlier on Monday, Katherine “LunarKats” So addressed the reasons why she was forced to part ways with TSM over the weekend. She explained that it was due to a Snapchat that she made in 2019, in which she said offensive and hurtful things about fast-food workers.

TSM released the professional VALORANT player and streamer on Saturday, only three days after announcing her as part of their new all-female VALORANT roster. She was set to compete at the VCT Game Changers Series that kicked off this week before being removed from the team.

"There is a video of a Snapchat rant that I made in 2019, and I said some really hurtful and insensitive things," Lunarkats explained during her stream on Monday. "I am not trying to justify anything I said in the video. Everything I said was absolutely inexcusable and offensive.... After that Snapchat rant, I stopped posting rants altogether. Looking back at it now, I am so ashamed and very disappointed in myself. I made a mistake and it was a really hurtful one."

She clarified during the Q&A portion of the video that the Snapchat in question targeted fast-food workers, though she didn't provide much detail beyond that. She explained that she didn't have the video to show, since she deleted the Snapchat in 2019 after feeling initial regret at the decision to post the video.

"I am genuinely sorry. I don't want that video to be a representation of who I am, because I am really not," she said in her apology. "I want to be a better person, and my stream and friends have pushed me to be a better person, and I feel really ashamed."

Through tears, LunarKats thanked the esports community for "holding me accountable," expressing that she needs to be held responsible for her words. She admitted that she didn't feel the repercussions of what she said at that time because she didn't have much of a following in 2019. Now she must "suffer the consequences." 

LunarKats also apologized to her team, which were forced to play with Ariananarchist as their last-minute substitute in this week's matches.

"Honestly, it was not TSM's fault at all," she clarified to her chat in response to people saying negative things about the org cutting her. "They approached me with the video and it was a mutual decision. They really wanted to protect me from someone using this video against me. But honestly, no matter what I do, this person can hold this video over my head, so I need to address it. It's something I did and said."

Based on her explanation, LunarKats was not removed due to the allegations that were made by Halei Raeanna, a content creator for SoaR. In Twitlonger, Raeanna accused LunarKats of harassing her in DM's and online with accusations of view botting.

These accusations were initially presumed by many to be the reason that LunarKats parted ways with TSM, but it appears that the removal from the roster was due to the aforementioned Snapchat.

While many in the community were curious about LunarKats being removed from the squad so soon, a lot of esports fans mostly targeted TSM for seeming to bend the rules of the VALORANT Game Changers tournament by getting a sub so last minute.