Elon Musk Greeted at Valorant Tournament With Boos, Chants of ‘Bring Back Twitter’

Elon Musk, who has spent much of the year in the headlines for his radical transformation of the platform previously known as Twitter, didn’t have a great time at a recent Valorant tournament.

Musk dropped in on the finals of the Valorant Champions tournament over the weekend, which took place in Los Angeles. He was filmed outside the event with his young son, X Æ A-12 Musk, then later joined the crowd as Evil Geniuses took on Paper Rex.

Elon Musk is at Valorant Champs what LOL pic.twitter.com/zvQc7iyLUk

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 26, 2023

At one point Musk appeared on the main video screen, drawing boos and chants of “Bring back Twitter” from the crowd. The moment quickly caught the attention of social media users, who responded to the boos and discussed Musk’s handling of X generally.

“Elon should have figured out who was a blue checkmark so he could have given them each a megaphone before he showed up. Pretty much how modern Twitter works,” one user joked in a highly upvoted message on the LivestreamFail subreddit.

Elon Musk getting booed at VALORANT Champs and the crowd starts chanting “bring back Twitter” lmao pic.twitter.com/lDoWse78YV

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 26, 2023

Musk has drawn criticism of his handling of X throughout 2023. Since taking over the company in late 2022, Musk has changed the name, erected a giant X on the top of the company’s headquarters, insinuated that he might remove the ability to block users, and introduced wholesale changes to key elements like verification.

Musk’s moves have made the billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX a polarizing figure on social media and elsewhere. For his part, Musk did not respond to the reaction at the Valorant tournament, instead focusing his attention on SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station.

As for the tournament itself, team Evil Geniuses ultimately won 3-1.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.