Riot Games have issued an official statement addressing the competitive integrity concerns within VCT Pacific.
The VCT Pacific team has officially addressed the competitive integrity concerns involving two players and how it will change the league going forward.
Riot Games, VCT Pacific issues statement on competitive integrity, actions taken
The biggest point of concern for the VALORANT Esports community, particularly in the Pacific region, was the improper use of headsets by Team Secret’s Ko “Sylvan” Young-sub and Gen.G Esports’ Kim “Lakia” Jong-min.
Head of VALORANT Esports in APAC, Jake Sin, first addressed this through a post on X after the topic came up on the SpikeTalk show.
In the official statement issued by Riot Games, they said that they reviewed recordings of all teams throughout Kickoff and confirmed that Sylvan and Lakia were using their equipment improperly. They even provided the specific games and maps where it occurred.
For Sylvan, it was on Feb. 5, in maps 2 and 3 against ZETA Division. For Lakia, it was on Jan. 23, in map 2 against DetonatioN FocusMe.
After reviewing footage and voice comms from these specific matches, we did not find evidence that the improper headset usage was intentional, nor that the individuals gained in-venue casting information for a material match advantage. In fact, the maps during which the headsets were improperly worn resulted in losses for both teams.
In accordance with Section 2.3.7 (Audio Restrictions) of the Ruleset and the Penalty Index under “Unauthorized Removal or Use of Equipment” (First Offense), a Written Notice has been issued to the players involved, and they have been informed that repeated offenses may result in additional disciplinary measures.
Both teams were issued warnings, an action that the community was not happy about.
Many called out the supposed preferential treatment that South Korean players are getting within the league, something that Rex Regum Qeon’s Maksim “Jemkin” Batorov also pointed out during the competition. Some are referring to the league as “VCT Korea,” and are crucifying the team for taking little to no action against the players’ transgressions.
On the YAP2ASIA talk show, where Sin guested, he addressed the preferential treatment that the South Korean teams are allegedly on the receiving end of.
The league is in [South] Korea, that’s a fact. We have a lot of Korean teams and players, and that is a fact as well. We have a lot of day-to-day admin and staff that are Korean. Sometimes they talk to each other in Korean. I can see how a lot of people feel like “Oh my god, this is so Korean – this is run by Koreans and there must be some bias baked into it.” It’s not their fault – it’s so understandable.
I would feel the same way if it was the other way around. Korean fans would be saying something about this if it was happening in a different country. I think we just have to be extra conservative [and] bulletproof on the fairness of it all. We can’t just let things like the smoking issue or the [tardiness] issue… there’s a lot of ambiguity in the rules which were applied consistently to all teams. But, the fact that there was ambiguity is not desirable, optimal, so we plan to address that too.
– Jake Sin, Head of VALORANT Esports, APAC
Since only warnings were issued to both players, they are still perfectly eligible to compete in any and all Riot events, including the upcoming VCT Pacific Stage 1.