Riot has announced that the previous Vivo Keyd competitive ruling has been overturned, leading to a replay with a 7 round penalty.
Update 12-5 6:30 AM PST: Acend won the rematch 13-10, only a one-round difference from the original ruling of 13-9. Original article follows.
In a bizarre turn of events, Riot has announced that map 3 of the Vivo Keyd vs Acend series will be replayed with a seven-round penalty.
This appears to be a compromise between all parties involved. The following effects are done by this ruling:
- Riot still gets to enforce a penalty - the seven rounds that previously caused a match win.
- Vivo Keyd gets a chance to replay the map and potentially overcome the penalty
- Acend gets a chance to move on in the Winner's Side of their group.
Acend vs Vivo Keyd map 3 will be replayed before tomorrow's games starting at 5:30 AM Pacific from Map 3, Round 8. In order to win, Acend will only need to clinch 6 rounds, with Vivo Keyd needing to come back from a 7 round deficit. It's unclear who will be on attack or defense, but that should be settled at the beginning of the broadcast.
Their reasoning is equally bizarre:
Under the VALORANT rules, due to the recalculated map score of 12-10, neither team has reached the necessary number of rounds to win the map. Therefore, a winner cannot be declared, which is a new situation for VALORANT esports. Given that Acend were the disadvantaged team, we worked with them on a solution and ultimately decided to replay Map 3 starting with a 7-0 round score in favor of Acend to account for the total number of exploited rounds plus an additional round for economic impact.
While this may be a compromise between all parties, it's still a bizarre walkback of the previous ruling, and certainly confusing for fans to follow. Now, instead of the first result, or the result that was a result of the ruling, fans have to watch Vivo Keyd, who knowingly exploited the game, get a chance at redemption.
Riot knows they messed up, too.
"We sincerely apologize to both teams and all VALORANT esports fans for detracting from what is the highlight of the year for our sport. We are committed to reevaluating our approach to exploits in 2022 and will be making changes to improve detection, in-match adjudication, and post-match rulings."
Regardless, we're looking at an unprecedented map 3 situation to start today's broadcast.
Let us know what you think of this ruling on Twitter @esports, and stay tuned for more Valorant coverage from VCT Champions.