The cheating incident garnered considerable attention within the VALORANT community in China.
CHINA – A player participating at the VALORANT China National Competition Season 1, a LAN event held in Nanjing, China, with a tier-three status and a prize pool of ~US$70,000, has been permanently banned for cheating.
The player at the center of the controversy belonged to the CHI66 team. Shortly after the tournament was over, an announcement from the official VALORANT account on Weibo circulated, revealing the outcome of an investigation that concluded a player named “发发” had utilized hardware peripherals for cheating during the VALORANT China National Competition Season 1.
The cheating incident involving 发发 occurred during the semi-finals on the event’s third day, where CHI66 suffered a defeat against Team Rainy. In response to the ban, 发发 is now barred from participating in any future official competitions or related activities, effectively facing a lifetime ban. Additionally, CHI66’s status as semi-finalists has been retracted due to this disqualification.
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Furthermore, the investigation confirmed that the remaining team members were unaware of the cheating incident. According to the official statement, the other team members had taken the initiative to raise concerns about the player in question to the referee team and cooperated with the organizers during the investigation. No penalties were imposed on them.
Despite the player being relatively unknown to the scene, this incident garnered considerable attention within the Chinese VALORANT community primarily due to the event being held offline in Nanjing and featuring a substantial prize pool of CN¥500,000, equivalent to US$70,000.
The inaugural season of the VALORANT China National Competition (无畏契约全国大赛) featured a number of pathways for players to qualify, giving opportunities through collegiate participation, regional qualifiers, in-game qualifications, and others.
Peng “PPQueen” Jiacheng stood out as the only notable player in the event, having previously competed with Totoro Gaming in the first year of VALORANT. On the other side of the table, the player implicated in the cheating incident remains unknown, with limited information accessible, having not been involved in the higher tiers of VALORANT’s competitive play whatsoever.
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Cover photo courtesy of VALORANT CN
