Riot disqualify EQ Cerise Valorant team for cheating in VCT Game Changers Qualifier
Riot GamesValorant’s Game Changers circuit has been a major step forwards for women’s esports in 2021.
Riot Games have announced a new competitive ruling disqualifying team EQ Cerise from the VCT Game Changers for allegedly cheating in a match versus CLG Red.
Riot Games is continuing to push forward women’s esports with their Valorant tournament series, Game Changers.
In November, the Game Changers circuit will even be getting its first in-person Championship LAN event. Set to be held in Berlin, Germany, the very best female and non-binary professional Valorant players will go head to head.
However, during a recent Game Changers qualifier, team EQ Cerise was disqualified by Riot entirely, after tournament organizers detected third-party software being used.
Riot Games ban EQ Cerise from VCT Game Changers
Following a lower bracket qualifier match between EQ Cerise and CLG Red, which resulted in EQ taking the series 2-1, Riot announced on Twitter that they discovered prohibited third-party tool usage from a player on EQ.
“After Saturday’s VCT Game Changes Open Qualifier between EQ Cerise and CLG Red, Riot’s Anti-Cheat team identified a positive case of prohibited third-party tool usage by a player on EQ,” the announcement read.
As a result, the tournament organizers announced EQ’s disqualification from Game Changers, while CLG Red will continue on in the tournament.
“Therefore, EQ is disqualified, and CLG Red will be advanced in the tournament. Further details will be provided following an additional investigation,” they added.
EQ Cerise IGL responds to allegations
EQ’s IGL ‘Amber’ put out a response on Twitter, denying the allegations made towards her team.
“I’m going on record to flat-out deny this,” she wrote. “Our game against CLG was extremely close. The player in question who allegedly was using 3rd party software was bottom fragging that map.”
“If it does come out that my teammate was cheating that sucks,” Amber stated, but added that they “would have won the match anyways.” She also disputed the ruling, adding that Riot’s anti-cheat program is wrong.
“The fact that these CLG red players get paid and lost to us, and are now calling us dogshit due to a false vanguard claim is disgusting. Wait till riot gives our player a pardon and makes all the CLG players look like maniacal children,” she wrote in another tweet.
The team’s IGL eventually put out a tweet longer, going into detail about why how all the games and voice comms were recorded — as required according to the VCT rulebook.
According to the IGL, all clips will be sent to Riot for further analyzation. Additionally, EQ will be conducting an investigation themselves where they’ll be searching through the accused’s computer for anything that may have triggered the anti-cheat.
