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What felt like a wholesome $2,000 Valorant tournament soon turned into a fiasco when a hack user was exposed live during the quarter-finals.
Using cheats like aimbot and wallhacks are a common trope in any shooter tournament, and the Valorant TGS Signature Series was no stranger to this fact.
Valorant’s sophisticated anti-cheat software, Vanguard, may have solved a lot of the hacking issues for the game but the larger problem has not been eradicated from the game completely. This was evident in the TGS quarter-finals when a player, who goes by the tag of “Ryut”, was blatantly caught cheating.
Cheaters making their way to the Valorant pro scene
Hacker found in the Valorant TGS Series
The TGS Signature Series may not be a big Valorant Ignition Series tournament but its importance lies in bringing the community together and helping the esports scene of Riot Games' shooter grow as much as possible.
So finding a cheater who has made his way to the quarter-finals of an online tournament raises a lot of questions about Vanguard's capabilities and whether its modes of hack detection and permanent HWID bans are enough.
Even though the player from Team Tokyo was caught only during the quarter-finals, there are high chances that he has cheated his way to this stage of the tournament.
This incident alone is a substantial setback for Valorant’s esports scene. And with the Ignition Series soon to end in a couple of weeks, fans are now wondering if Valorant is ready to have a full-fledged professional scene.
If the pros are caught hacking, where at all is the competitive integrity of Valorant?
Ryut’s blatant abuse of hacks has riled up the community
Ryutt aimlocking in the Valorant TGS Signature Series (screengrab from Twitch clip)
Using a cheat in a competition is a tremendous offence in itself but using it blatantly for the whole world to see deserves no forgiveness.
Ryut’s Valorant TGS Twitch clip has gone viral in social media, and it shows that the Team Tokyo player was holding an angle in Haven’s double doors. With an enemy Reyna approaching, we can see his aimbot coming live when his crosshair immediately flicks to her head.
Ryut should technically not have any knowledge of Reyna's position. There were no footstep audio cues or Sova or Cypher ability uses that revealed the enemy position. Yet, Ryut knew exactly where the player was.
Fortunately, even though Vanguard took its own sweet time, Ryut was ultimately caught and severely penalised. Since then the player has deleted his Discord and Twitter, and the only way he can play Valorant again is if he buys a completely new system.
