Riot bans two Valorant players for 3 years for match-fixing and gambling

Two competitive Valorant players have been banned from VCT competition for 36 months, after a Riot investigation discovered that they had bet against their own team and encouraged their teammates to throw the match.

Playing for Resurgence at the time, Malcolm ‘Germsg’ Chung and Ryan ‘Dreamycsgo’ Tan, were playing against BlackBird Ignis in an Ignition Series match in September 2020.

Riot’s investigation found that they “coordinated to bet against their own team,” with Germsg initiating the scheme and Dreamycsgo “providing the capital.”

As a result of the investigation, the players were found to have “violated Rule 7.2.1 and 7.2.4 of the VALORANT Global Competition Policy for manipulating the outcome of a competitive VALORANT match for monetary gain.”

These rules specify the definitions and punishments for both match-fixing and gambling on the outcome of matches (which team members are not permitted to do in any circumstance).

Germsg was initially accused in a detailed Google Docs document by fellow competitor calel, titled “exposing a parasite in the Valorant Singapore community.” He said “some of those matches were bettable as well. Who knows how many of these matches were fixed?”

https://twitter.com/calel336/status/1384533928099287042

According to Riot’s investigation, the other members of the Resurgence roster did not want to throw the match or agree to the scheme, but did not inform officials about it out of fear of punishments or issues with their Resurgence contracts.

These players have been banned from VCT for 6 months – 1 year, with the reduced penalties “based on their level of culpability and their level of their cooperation with the investigation.”

The punishments for the Resurgence roster are:

• Malcolm ‘Germsg‘ Chung: 3 years
• Ryan ‘Dreamycsgo‘ Tan: 3 years
• Justin ‘Boplek‘ Wong Chong Cheng: 1 year
• Sengdala ‘Jabtheboy‘ Jamnalong: 1 year
• Du Min ‘Mortdecai‘ Yeo: 6 months
• Benedict ‘Benaf‘ Tan: 6 months

Riot says that Germsg attempted to “pay off” other members of the team, but this offer was rejected.

“Maintaining the competitive integrity of our tournaments is our top priority and we take such matters extremely seriously,” Riot said. “All players are expected to abide by the rules of fair play, agreed upon prior to participation in the tournaments. Violations of the rules of fair play will not be tolerated by VALORANT Esports.”