UPDATE: Ardiis was cleared of any reported wrongdoing.
Original article:
Ardis ‘ardiis’ Svarenieks, a former CSGO player from the UK scene, has dismissed a report claiming he intended to cheat in his new game of choice: Valorant.
This report, published by ItsGamerDoc – someone claiming to have a ‘real passion for game hacking and protecting game integrity’ – wrote that ardiis approached a developer to make him a cheat for Valorant, as well as discussing match fixing.
Esports News UK reviewed the report and didn’t find there to be 100% solid proof to back up its claims.
Ardiis, who has played for several UK teams in CSGO in the past and has been playing with the Fish123 Valorant roster over the past few months, denied the allegations. He said they were an attempt to destroy his potential career ‘as revenge’.
However, he did admit to listening to a proposal regarding potential match fixing, which he said happened a few months ago, before Valorant was announced.
“I had just lost my salary in Counter-Strike, with zero income or prospect of a job and the bills were beginning to pile up, and the financial hardship that I found myself in was beginning to seriously impact my mental health,” Ardiis said in a Twitlonger.
“With my depression and stress worsening, the proposal of potentially gaining £1,000-2,000 per game that was shown on HLTV was obviously tempting for someone in my financial position.
“I agreed to a demonstration… but realised how severe our potential actions could be, with prison time and a criminal record being an extremely likely outcome should we be proven guilty.”
Ardiis
“I am not proud of the thoughts which entered my mind during a severely low point in my life and the entire situation made me realise how morally incorrect the process was and that I would never be able to partake in match-fixing in any game. I reiterate that I have never match-fixed or cheated in CSGO or Valorant and I am more than willing to co-operate with Riot and Valve to prove my innocence should it escalate that far.”
Ardiis also said he noticed the team of coders were entering Valorant events under the name ‘Valolytics’, and that Riot’s Vanguard system detected the coders’ cheats and banned them.
Valorant developer Riot Games has been banging on about its anti-cheat system for the game since earlier this year.
Ardiis recently left Fish123 and has been linked with a move to G2. He’ll be taking part in a G2 Red Bull Valorant Invitational tournament from June 19th to 21st, as will UK FPS streamer Onscreen.
Last month, Riot announced the Valorant Ignition Series, an official partner program where Riot spotlights a few tournaments each week.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
