Riot Games’ Global Head of Valorant Esports, Leo Faria, has issued a statement following allegations of match-fixing issues in Challengers North America.
This follows after Shopify Rebellion general manager and content creator Sean ‘sgares’ Gares brought to light allegations of ‘match-fixing, cheating and underground gambling rings,’ in North America’s second tier of competitive Valorant.
Over the weekend, Gares published a video almost an hour long titled “The Dark Side of Competitive Valorant.” Then on the same day, not long after the video’s release, Riot issued its own official statement.
In the statement, Faria stressed that Riot’s internal investigations are well underway: “We take all allegations extremely seriously and have been collecting information since they were first shared with us in early May.
“We have also taken proactive steps by engaging our integrity partners at IBIA, Sportradar, GRID, and others, to ensure a comprehensive and robust investigation.”
While Gares isn’t directly mentioned in the statement, Fares did acknowledge those who have been updating the community, but says Riot are looking for concrete proof:
“Whistleblowers play an important role in situations like this, and while we value and encourage community reports, only evidence-based investigations can lead to action.
“Public sharing of information may lead to individuals tampering with the investigation and jeopardising its outcome.”
Despite that, Gares’ video is still public. The piece media focuses on a user called ‘bray’ who Gares claims tempted Challenger players into throwing matches for money.
As part of these allegations, Gares highlighted what he believes might be potential evidence against two former Blue Otter’s players, Adam ‘Fair’ Elharoun and Bob ‘Bob’ Tran, who he accuses of cheating against Shopify Revellion and throwing a match intentionally against Burger Boys.
The latter player, Bob, is now a part of FlyQuest RED, but the team announced they have benched him following the allegations and will conduct their own internal investigations.
This decision was met with some backlash as FlyQuest didn’t punish one of their Marvel Rivals players for transphobic remarks last week.
Update: The players of Blue Otter have since responded to the allegations in a shared Twitter (now X) post across their accounts.
In the post, the players have denied the allegations and emphasised the negative impact it has had on them.
They also added that they’ll be posting a video to directly respond to Gares’ allegations.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
