Riot Video games’ International Head of Valorant Esports, Leo Faria, has issued an announcement following allegations of match-fixing points in Challengers North America.
This follows after Shopify Rise up common supervisor and content material creator Sean ‘sgares’ Gares delivered to mild allegations of ‘match-fixing, dishonest and underground playing rings,’ in North America’s second tier of aggressive Valorant.
Over the weekend, Gares printed a video virtually an hour lengthy titled “The Darkish Aspect of Aggressive Valorant.” Then on the identical day, not lengthy after the video’s launch, Riot issued its personal official assertion.
Within the assertion, Faria careworn that Riot’s inner investigations are properly underway: “We take all allegations extraordinarily critically and have been gathering data since they had been first shared with us in early Might.
“We have now additionally taken proactive steps by partaking our integrity companions at IBIA, Sportradar, GRID, and others, to make sure a complete and strong investigation.”
Whereas Gares isn’t immediately talked about within the assertion, Fares did acknowledge those that have been updating the neighborhood, however says Riot are searching for concrete proof:
“Whistleblowers play an necessary position in conditions like this, and whereas we worth and encourage neighborhood reviews, solely evidence-based investigations can result in motion.
“Public sharing of data could result in people tampering with the investigation and jeopardising its end result.”
Regardless of that, Gares’ video continues to be public. The piece media focuses on a consumer known as ‘bray’ who Gares claims tempted Challenger gamers into throwing matches for cash.
As a part of these allegations, Gares highlighted what he believes is perhaps potential proof towards two former Blue Otters gamers, Adam ‘Truthful’ Elharoun and Bob ‘Bob’ Tran, who he accuses of dishonest towards Shopify Revellion and throwing a match deliberately towards Burger Boys.
The latter participant, Bob, is now part of FlyQuest RED, however the staff introduced they’ve benched him following the allegations and can conduct their very own inner investigations.
This choice was met with some backlash as FlyQuest didn’t punish one in every of their Marvel Rivals gamers for transphobic remarks final week.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports protection to newspapers, interviewed a few of the largest names within the business, and pushed viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most pleased with the latter.
