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After playing Valorant for a few days, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev tweeted that he has gotten a block in ranked games. He also claimed to have got to the Immortal rank just a day prior. So it came as quite a shocker as the reason behind the ranked ban was not clear.
S1mple also inquired how to check the duration of the ban.
Within approximately two hours of his tweet, s1mple was unbanned. It’s plausible that this prompt un-ban was through manual intervention from Riot Games.
S1mple is a huge sensation in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports scene. It raised quite a lot of eyebrows when s1mple started to play Valorant once again and streamed it on his Twitch channel.
S1mple’s ban in ranked Valorant: decoding the mystery
It's quite clear from s1mple’s tweet that he was only banned from ranked matchmaking and not from the game as a whole. Hence, it can be deduced that this was either a chat ban or a penalty for being AFK that prevented him from queueing ranked.
Since patch 2.05, Valorant devs have pushed for stringent measures against toxic player behavior. If someone has received multiple reports of voice chat misuse or has remained in AFK multiple times during the game, a ranked matchmaking ban could be imminent. Both of these reasons have recently been added to the list of possible causes for ranked matchmaking bans.
Since he didn’t reveal any concrete info regarding the ban, or nothing more than what is there in the tweet, it is a matter of conjecture on what could have caused the ban. Be it s1mple being toxic in the game, or other players simply troll-reporting him, the ban has caused quite a stir in the Valorant and CSGO community alike.
Although the ban was lifted promptly, it still creates a murky image for the broader audience, especially because of s1mple’s stature as being one of the best CSGO players. S1mple’s fanbase mostly consists of CSGO players who didn’t miss the opportunity to poke fun at the mysterious ban.
It will be interesting to see s1mple’s Valorant journey as he streams more and more Valorant going forward.
Related: Valorant devs are planning to restrict players with connection issues to queue up for matchmaking
