Japanese pro gamer BlackRay, who made headlines in July after being arrested on suspicion of involvement in an elaborate kidnapping and physical assault case, recently gave an update on the situation on X. In an August 29 post, he said that charges against him have been dropped as of August 27, meaning he will not be prosecuted (note that this is not the same as receiving a “not guilty” verdict, as X’s machine translation erroneously suggests).
BlackRay (Sho Hasegawa) was a professional Rainbow Six Siege player and a member of the CAG OSAKA esports organization. Shortly after news of his arrest broke, the team announced its withdrawal from the APAC North 2025 playoffs and terminated BlackRay’s contract.
As reported by Jiji Press back in July, BlackRay had been arrested along six other individuals on suspicion of confining and physically assaulting a man over a three month-period. The report described gruesome details of the assault, with the victim allegedly being beaten, stabbed, burned and tortured with boiling water.
Reports did not include details regarding the extent of BlackRay’s involvement, but on August 7, he announced that he was released on the previous day with his charges pending, commenting, “At this time, I have nothing to report regarding my own admission or denial of the charges.” Then, on August 29, he followed up to announce that the prosecution dropped charges against him. He apologized “for causing a disturbance.”
