Valorant Champions 2021: Match between Vivo Keyd and Acend will be replayed today with a seven-round penalty

Vivo Keyd vs Acend to be replayed (Image via Sportskeeda)
Vivo Keyd vs Acend to be replayed (Image via Sportskeeda)

Riot's statement against Vivo Keyd in their Group A match against Acend has caused a further furore among Brazilian fans. Riot's ruling saw Vivo Keyd lose the match against Acend and go into the elimination bracket. Riot then decided to review it and has now announced that Map 3 of the match will be replayed.

The 15-minute pause in the match between Sentinels and Furia Esports had irritated the Brazilian Valorant community. The fans felt the inordinate pause messed with the momentum of Furia Esports who could have delivered an upset against Sentinels.

Valorant Champions 2021 has been mired in a number of controversies that have ended up becoming a headache for Riot Games to deal with. There have already been cases where Riot has stepped in because one of the players exploited a bug.


Replay between Vivo Keyd and Acend to take place on Day 5 of Valorant Champions

After discussing with Acend, Riot has issued that they have come upon the decision that the match will be replayed before the start of Day 5's broadcast with a seven-round penalty for Vivo Keyd.

The ruling states in a TL;DR:

Yesterday we issued a competitive ruling for a map exploit by Vivo Keyd and forfeited four round wins in their match against Acend, resulting in a 13-9 victory for Acend. After further review, we determined that they should have forfeited three rounds, which would make the score 12-10 in favor of Acend with no team having won the map. After discussion with Acend, we will be replaying the match at the start of today’s broadcast with Acend ahead 7-0 (to account for the six rounds that involved the exploit and a one round Econ penalty).

The map exploit in question was done by JhoW, Vivo Keyd's Cypher, on Breeze's A site. This is a known bug for which Riot had previously punished two other teams during the VCT.

Riot's first reaction to the issue meant that Vivo Keyd lost Map 3 to Acend and thus the match. The developers then announced that they would deliberate upon the matter and then came up with this new ruling.

Vivo Keyd versus Acend will take place on December 5 from 7.00 pm IST (5.30 am PST / 2.30 CET / 10.30 JST ) and can be seen live on Valorant's Twitch and YouTube channels.


Valorant Champions 2021 is the biggest spectacle yet for Valorant's competitive scene. Sixteen teams, out of nearly ten thousand, qualified from the year-long VCT to try and become the first-ever Valorant Champion. Issues like these end up tarnishing the image of the event, something Riot is actively trying to avoid.

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