It seems like Riot's decision to disqualify Guild Esports from First Strike EU didn't sit well with fans.
Last Friday, the David Beckham-backed esports team used a bug in the game in their favor to defeat G2 Esports. However, upon learning about this bug abuse, Riot decided to disqualify Guild Esports.
An update on VALORANT First Strike: Europe
RIOT officials have discovered that during their game on 11/13 Guild Esports used an exploit against G2 Esports. Exploits are prohibited under Rule 7.2.6 of the Global Competition Policy and as such Guild have been handed a forfeit loss.— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) November 14, 2020
Unsurprsingly, Guild Esports protested this decision, saying that the team merely utilizied innovative strategies to win their game. They requested Riot to classify the incident as an unintentional exploit, and expressed that Riot should remove it from the game.
Statement on First Strike EU Qualifiers https://t.co/B0J7DOL4Kt pic.twitter.com/DAuEywmZ2J
— GUILD (@guildesports) November 14, 2020
The exploit in question involved “boosting”, or propeling a player to a higher vantage point using their agents' skills. In this case, Killjoy uses her turret to increase the height of a Sage ice wall. This allows the Killjoy to hop on top of the ice wall, letting them peek through a window in the Ascenet map. The window usually can't be reached by normal ways, and is thus considered to give an unfair advantage.
Community and pros react to banning
Apart from Guild Esports, both fans and other pros expressed their concern over Riot's decision.
A reddit thread follows a hotly-contested debate between two camps. Those defending Guild Esports claim that the team even expressly asked a referee about the exploit. After asking about this interaction, the referee allegedly didn't give an answer. Thus, Guild Esports should have received just a warning, instead of a disqualification.
Meanwhile, even Guild Esports' opponents for that match came to the defense of the team. G2's Jacob “pyth” Mourujärvi says in a tweet:
Guild getting disqualified is an really unfortunate situation and I feel sorry for them. They used an exploit against us and with or without the bug they would have won the game since they were the better team yesterday. Grateful we got an 2nd chance and we stepped up big today.
— pyth (@pythofficial) November 14, 2020
Interestingly, some fans are now calling out G2 as well for using a banned skin identified to cause a gameplay bug. However, the developers have noted that the bug only affects the Brazil server. It is thus banned in Valorant First Strike Brazil, but not anywhere else.
Valorant First Strike Europe will continue with its qualifiers next week, in which Guild Esports is still eligible to join. Eight teams will compete in the main event on December 3 to 6 for the €85,000 prize pool.
Follow Us
Subscribe