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TL;DR: Team Besties was found to have utilized unregistered players during VALORANT Game Changers to gain a competitive advantage. Furthermore, Team Besties did not cooperate with the subsequent investigation. The players and manager of Team Besties are banned from any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned competition for 18 months - one year for ringing and an additional six months for non-cooperation.
Context
The Open Qualifier of VALORANT Champions Tour 2021: Game Changers North America Series 2 took place on June 19th and 20th. Team Besties registered Jenna “koi” Tang, Katie “kateuuu” Tran, Mia “kei” Leong, Jasmine “memrice” Huynh, and Jennifer “wetboosy” Li as players and Bella “soju” Rierad as their manager. As part of registration, each player acknowledged their understanding of and agreement to the VALORANT Global Competition Policy and the VALORANT Champions Tour 2021 Rule Set.
Team members must register no greater than one account each. In official Game Changers matches, players must only play on the account they have registered for themselves. They may not play under other accounts and may not induce anyone else, registered or unregistered, to play under their account.
Timeline
On Sunday June 20th, Tournament Officials were made aware of suspicion surrounding a Team Besties player. Kei had played Sova in all of Team Besties’ first five games of Game Changers, accumulating a -39 kill/death differential. During these five games, kei’s ping to Texas servers was stable at 52ms. However, in the next three games against Team Invicta and 100emoji, kei’s ping to Texas servers was stable at 68ms. Kei played Jett and Reyna in these three games, accumulating a kill/death differential of +44. In addition to the suspicion surrounding kei, Tournament Officials caught an account named “arentikawaii” in the pre-game lobby against 100emoji. As arentikawaii was never registered onto the roster, Tournament Officials informed Team Besties that arentikawaii may not play in Game Changers. Team Besties attempted to pass off arentikawaii as an alternate account for the registered account wetboosy. Tournament Officials forced Team Besties to play with the properly registered account. After Tournament Officials had left the Team Besties voice channel, voice communication recordings picked up the phrase “What is the password?” from a Team Besties player.
Team Besties initially denied any instances of account sharing or “ringing” (defined in Rule 7.2.7) to Tournament Officials. However, we worked with Tournament Officials to confirm that kei’s account had multiple log-ins from across North America during Game Changers. Accordingly, Tournament Officials disqualified Team Besties from Game Changers. After their disqualification, Team Besties then admitted to Tournament Organizers instances of willful account sharing.
During the course of investigation, we reviewed (i) extensive screenshots of correspondence between persons of interest; (ii) individual player ping differentials; (iii) log-in behavior patterns for each member of Team Besties. Additionally, we conducted interviews with Tournament Officials and members of Game Changers teams that had played Team Besties. Team Besties refused to schedule interviews.
Ruling
Team Besties team members had unregistered players play on their accounts during official Game Changers matches. This is a violation of Rule 7.2.7 of the VALORANT Global Competition Policy. This violation warrants a suspension for one year. Additionally, Team Besties initially denied any instances of account sharing and refused to schedule interviews with Riot investigators. This violation warrants a suspension extension of six months. This is a violation of Rule 8.1 of the VALORANT Global Competition Policy. The following players and manager are banned from any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned league for eighteen months, beginning from the date of the latest violation and continuing until December 20th, 2022:
- Jenna “koi” Tang
- Katie “kateuuu” Tran
- Mia “kei” Leong
- Jasmine “memrice” Huynh
- Jennifer “wetboosy” Li
- Bella “soju” Rierad
Relevant Rules
7.2.7. Ringing
Playing under another player’s account or Riot ID, or soliciting or inducing someone else to play under another player’s account or Riot ID, is prohibited.
8.1. Investigations by the Tournament Operator
The Tournament Operator will have the right to monitor compliance with this Global Policy and the applicable Event-Specific Rules and investigate possible breaches. By agreeing to this Global Policy, each Team Member agrees to cooperate with the Tournament Operator in any internal or external investigation that the Tournament Operator conducts relating to a suspected violation of this Global Policy, the applicable Event-Specific Rules or applicable law. Team Members have a duty to tell the truth in connection with any investigation conducted by or for the Tournament Operator and have a further duty not to obstruct any such investigation, mislead investigators or withhold evidence.