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Boosting and Smurfing are some of the most concerning issues in competitive games like Valorant. Riot has taken a few steps to prevent the same, yet it is still prevalent in the Valorant community in huge numbers.
A Philippine-based professional Valorant team, Affinity Esports, was recently accused of providing Elo boosting services in exchange for money.
For people unaware of the term, boosting is an unethical rank-up process in esports. To boost an account, a low-ranking player asks a high-ranking player to play in the same low ranked lobby and expect him/her to execute most of the game and get them a win.
In a public Facebook post, a page named "AFN Valorant Boosting", claiming to be a representative of Affinity Esports, offered boosting services to various low-elo Valorant players.
The post also mentioned that all the profits gained would help its young squad members with their schooling and other daily purposes.
With the news buzzing all around the gaming community, Affinity Esports' Facebook handle hastily released an official statement claiming the accusations to be false.
Affinity Esports release an official Facebook statement to clear name from illegal Valorant boosting
As soon as the page titled "AFN Valorant Boosting" posted about their claimed elo boosting services, the news went viral all around social media.
Though many esports players have been illegally running private boosting businesses for a long time, such public boosting offers from professional teams like Affinity Esports left a lot of fans dumbstruck.
The Global Valorant Community demanded an immediate ban on the Filipino side from all sorts of esports activities. Valorant regular and Redditor AskOrganic4289 had this to say on the incident:
"Wait they’re an actual established org? Of course, it’s should be against Riot’s rules, as it ruins the experience for casual gamers because of the smurfs. They must be banned. "
Affinity Esports did not delay in responding. They released an official statement on Facebook stating that their professional Valorant team was not responsible for offering any boosting services.
It clarified that the people behind the Facebook page "AFN Valorant Boosting" were unrelated individuals to Affinity Esports Organization. Officials also confirmed that the post was made by a former Affinity Esports council, who is no longer connected to the organization.
Affinity Esports' good reputation was possibly used by the imposter as bait to get some credibility in offering these boosting services. The organization gave a deadline of 12 hours to the person involved to take down the concerned post along with the Facebook page involved.
It worked as the Facebook post along with the page was removed within an hour of its release.
The organization clarified that no members from the AFN Valorant PRO Team were involved in any boosting services or other illegal modes of play.
