Youngest female Radiant player in Valorant hits back at boosting accusations

After crowning herself the youngest female Valorant player to reach the rank of Radiant, content creator ‘VAL_Kaylee’ has denied accusations of being ‘boosted’ by cheaters.

On December 31, 2020, Valorant content creator VAL_Kaylee announced her climb in the Competitive playlist had finally led her to the coveted rank of Radiant. Not only had she reached the highest possible rank, she was also the youngest female player to ever do so.

Kay tweeted out an image of her account after hitting Radiant, and the Valorant community was quick to give her props for the difficult feat. Well-known Valorant pros like Melanie ‘meL’ Capone offered their congratulations on the impressive achievement.

However, opinions quickly shifted after a video was posted by two other Valorant content creators claiming kay had participated in account boosting and cheating in order to reach Radiant.

Boosting is the practice of playing with other accounts, or allowing another user to play on your account – often cheaters or players with much higher Elo on their main account – to quickly climb in a game’s ranked playlist.

The 12 minute-long video posted by Valorant content creators ‘Kaden’ and ‘Reduxx’ contained evidence of foul play by the streamer. The two collected Twitch clips, Discord screenshots, and other pieces of information that pointed to kay’s alleged involvement with boosters and hackers.

With the apparent evidence of boosting in hand, the content creators used their video to break down each specific element of the situation. Not only did the two claim kay had been boosted to Radiant, but that she knew the people boosting her were cheaters.

Boosting allegations

The video began by explaining how kay’s account had a .64 K/D ratio which then jumped to .87 when she hit Radiant. The two creators showed that in Acts 1 and 2, kay peaked at ranks of Gold 1 and Plat 3 (respectively) then jumped to Radiant in Act 3.

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The evidence against kay did not end with statistical anomalies in her performance. The two creators also provided evidence that suggested kay knew she was being boosted, and knew the accounts she was playing with were cheaters.

In a clip from her Twitch channel kay mentions that she has an alternate account – ‘TSM Kay’ – that both her and one of her friends played on. When the two played together, TSM Kay was frequently at the top of the scoreboard while kay’s main account did not perform as well.

Reduxx and Kaden argued that someone else was playing on the alternate account and boosting kay’s main account in the process. While it is not unheard of to have a second account for any game, allowing another person to use it is generally a violation of Riot’s rules.

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The two creators also noted that kay’s main and alt accounts both played with two other users: ‘tripl3b00st TR4N’/’TRAN’ and ‘chonkimos wei.’ Their video provided several pieces of information that indicated both of these accounts were boosting kay while cheating.

The video provided screenshots of chat logs showing TRAN and wei both openly discussed boosting kay. The Discord chat logs, along with suspicious activity and performances on both accounts, seemed to indicate they were boosting kay while cheating.

Kaden and Reduxx provided this evidence to Riot Games in the hopes that both the cheaters and players they boosted will be banned. The two also stressed they do not want to start a witch hunt, but expose the on-going boosting problems that are affecting Valorant’s ranked play.

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Kay denies allegations

After this video was released, kay responded with a Twitter thread denying the allegations. She hit back at the accusations of being boosted and playing with cheaters, saying “I didn’t pay anyone to boost me and didn’t pay a cheater either.”

While some users came to kay’s defense, the majority of responses were critical of her apparent actions. Some called her out for playing with cheaters, and others simply criticized her for allowing other players to boost her.

One user responded, “It’s that its still boosting. Bad intention or not. It’s still a big issue in VALORANT.” Account boosting has remained rampant in Valorant since the game’s release, and the community developed a very low tolerance for such activities.

Despite the claims made in Kaden and Reduxx’s video, kay has maintained her innocence. The streamer retweeted several accounts that voiced their support and issued another Tweet describing how the experience had affected her.

Kay posted her own short video explaining her side of the story, and asked her accusers to “get your facts straight before posting an 11 minute video about me.”

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“First they’re saying people in my (Discord) server are boosting me and saying I’m boosted by simps,” she said before addressing the accusations. “The people who are saying this (in my Discord) are literally my friends and are joking about me being ‘boosted.’

“I’m very sorry, and I hope I will never joke about being boosted ever again because apparently it can do some damage.” She also hit back at Kaden and Reduxx for coming after the people she played with, saying “if you guys are going to attack me, don’t come for my friends.”

In her response, kay provided evidence that she did not participate in boosting, and confirmed she removed wei from her friends list after he was accused of cheating. Kay also criticized Kaden and Reduxx for their accusations, saying “a lot of things said in that video are misinterpreted.”

Riot has not issued a public response at the time of writing. It remains to be seen whether or not the developer will look into the claims against kay, her teammates, or any of the accounts involved in the situation.

Boosting continues to be a hot-button issue in the Valorant community, and this appears to be the latest in a string of accusations that are wearing down the integrity of the game’s ranked scene. It remains to be seen how Riot will address issues with Competitive in the future.