Valorant gameplay video leaks early due to hackers

An unconfirmed hacker has uploaded a seven-minute Valorant video featuring leaked gameplay. This comes after Riot Games held an exclusive “game capture” event over the weekend for content creators and professional players. Invitees spent time playing Valorant and had the chance to record embargoed gameplay. Unfortunately, one of these creators’ had their YouTube account hacked, allowing the footage to escape into the real world earlier than intended.

The leak

On the evening of March 31, Rod “Slasher” Breslau tweeted a note that Valorant gameplay had surfaced online. With his announcement coming so close to April Fools’ Day, many took his claim as a joke. However, he insisted the statement was serious. Other Twitter users began replying to Slasher’s tweet with video links, too, which substantiated his claims.

Since then, Riot Games and YouTube have attempted to remove all evidence of the video. Unfortunately, their efforts have fallen short. Users have already downloaded the footage and uploaded it onto platforms like Streamable.

Czech Cloud gets hacked

The leaked gameplay was originally recorded by YouTube content creator Czech Cloud. He no doubt intended to release the footage himself once the embargo had lifted. However, his YouTube account was hacked, allowing the Valorant video to leak early. The Hearthstone champ released a statement on Twitter explaining the situation and apologizing for the leak.

Since you all saw it, i might as well tell you what happened. My Youtube was compromised and one of the videos i prepared for you from the Valorant bootcamp was leaked. I am sorry for spoiling it earlier, it wasnt intentional and i am looking forward to show you more in two days.

— CzechCloud (@TrueCzechCloud) April 1, 2020

Some members of Valorant‘s Reddit community believe that infamous hacker irys38 may be the one who published the content. Over the years, irys38 has developed an unfavorable reputation on the internet. They have targeted innocent Twitch chat users for some time. Whether or not they are truly responsible for this leak, however, is unconfirmed for now.

Czech Cloud would later address the leak again on one of his streams. There, he confirmed that Riot Games had no intention of punishing him for this. While they are no doubt upset by the leak, the company was empathic and understood the upload wasn’t his fault.