Valorant community weighs in on the controversy as T1 forced to forfeit to TSM in VCT NA Open Qualifier 1

Controversy broke out in the Valorant community after T1 was accused of violating rules of fair play in their match against TSM in the lower bracket of the Valorant Champions Tour NA Open Qualifier 1. According to T1 steel, map 1 was supposedly won by T1 before Riot decided to look into the accusations.

TSM Subroza mentioned on his Twitter page that they were "playing vs a team that has their coach typing and probably talking to them mid-game gg 6v5" in response to one of his teammates mentioning ping issues. He further confirmed in the replies that T1's coach had said something in all chat during the match.

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Valorant community reactions range from sympathy to jokes

TSM lost map 1 on Split to T1 by a 7-13 margin. They were then down 4-8 on the next map. They called for a tech pause soon after and several players tweeted during that. Upon being accused by XSET dephh of not wanting it enough, Subroza shot back that their tweets were regarding current issues and they wished to change.

The situation kept bubbling over as the community picked their sides and started spewing shade at each other over. T1's steel tweeted a sleeping emoji with a picture confirming that T1 had indeed won map 1 by 13-7.

Soon after, it was stated that Riot was investigating the map 1 text because they were notified that T1 had allegedly violated communication rules that were in place.

Riot later came out with their competitive ruling and shared it on their official Champions Tour NA handle. It announced that T1 will be forfeiting the match for having violated section 7.2.11.

Professional players and the Valorant community have chimed in on the issue. TSM Wardell posted a picture related to the controversy that involved iBUYPOWER and steel in CS: GO with the caption - Help Sewer - referring to what the T1 coach possibly said in all chat.

Others joked about "coach diff" and added the coach as the sixth player on the sheet shared by steel. Some mocked TSM players for tweeting and others wondered if the ruling was harsh.

The event's drama reminds one about the Vivo Keyd issues during Valorant Champions. The Brazilian team was handed a competitive ruling that did not go down well with the fans from the region.

Riot's official response puts the issue to bed with respect to the match's outcome. It remains to be seen how the drama will unfold.