Following controversy over match fixing in the Valorant Challengers Circuit, Timothy ‘Mrfunhaver’, Tournament Organiser and CEO of the organisation Funhaver, has raised concerns over the longevity of the esports scene.
After Sean Gares catapulted accusations of Tier 2 and 3 match fixing into the spotlight, Mrfunhaver asserted that the competitive ecosystem relies on his contributions, citing his significant financial and personal investment as crucial to its survival.
He also singles out the lack of publisher support from Riot Games in the post’s comments. This supplements his dissatisfaction expressed on a livestream from May 16th.
Links to Tier 2 Valorant and North American Challengers Controversy
The organisation Funhaver, run by Timothy ‘Mrfunhaver’, runs online and LAN tournaments for Tier 2 and 3 teams. They pitched a tournament package to Riot for running the Valorant Challengers Circuit, but lost their bid to Liga Ace.
Before Sean Gares publicised allegations of match fixing in Tiers 2 and 3, Mrfunhaver discussed issues within the scene in a Twitch stream on May 16th.
This included discussing their proposal that they sent to Riot Games for the Challengers Circuit, the mismanagement of the Challengers Circuit, cheating allegations, match fixing, and his personal opinions on what he described as “the problems with Tier 2.”
After his Twitch stream, he also published a summary of his discussion in a publicly available Google document.
Mrfunhaver’s mentions of Tier 2 match fixing and cheating came before Sean Gares’ more widely discussed exposé. During Mrfunhaver’s stream, Gares joined the chat, saying Mrfunhaver was “blowing open a case” he had “been working on for over a week,” and needed to stop discussing it.
Mrfunhaver responded live, indicating he was unaware of Gares’ investigation, stating he “had no idea about that.”
Funhaver’s absence and structural collapse
Mrfunhaver has also openly claimed that if he shifts his focus away from semi-professional Valorant at the end of summer as planned, “the scene will die completely.”
He predicts that by the end of this year, he will have personally lost $60,000 USD (~£44,600) of investment in Valorant – an investment that is not guaranteed to be replaced by another individual.
The company Funhaver is also the primary organisation responsible for hosting in-person LAN events below a Tier 1 level.
Mrfunhaver claims that “Riot’s main KPI for Challengers is the number of players that promote from T2 to T1,” which is why they do not invest in LAN tournaments at this level. Tier 2 teams often struggle to promote to Tier 1, resulting in most Tier 2-3 competitors having limited options for in-person competition.
Feedback in comments under Mrfunhaver’s post suggests, however, that fans believe Tier 3 competition would survive in the form of small-scale weekly tournaments.
Many expressed satisfaction with this, while Riot addresses match fixing and cheating allegations in Tier 2. Generally, there is an agreement that the lower-tier LANs would be absent.
Mrfunhaver vs Riot
As speculation surrounding match fixing escalated, concern grew for the overall longevity of Tier 2 Valorant tournaments.
These worries were amplified by popular professional player and streamer Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, who posted about Riot Games’ “mishandling” resulting in greater instability two days after Mrfunhaver’s stream.
In a comment under the May 28th post, Mrfunhaver made his most direct hit at Riot yet, explicitly stating his belief that the publisher’s lack of support would be the final nail in the Tier 2 and 3 coffin.
“Riot will never do anything though, they have made that very clear. There would be college VAL and nothing else.”
@mrfunhaver
Whether Funhaver’s step back collapses the lower-tier competitive system or not, hits from Tier 1 figures like TenZ and Sean Gares are now strongly reinforced by Tier 2-3 organisers themselves.
Riot Games and the VCT team have provided no additional comments since their statement on May 24th.
Hannah is a writer specialising in the esports, gaming, and technology sectors. Working for outlets such as Dot Esports, Esports Insider, and of course ENUK, she has developed a love for wider esports and Apex Legends, although it may never surpass her drive to passionately beat her friends in every game of Mariokart. You may have seen her at various esports and gaming events, including ESI London, EGX, Discover: Esports and many League of Legends watch parties.
