Vivo Keyd forced to forfeit series to Acend due to exploit at Champions

After today’s match between Vivo Keyd and Acend stirred up controversy over an illegal camera exploit, the VALORANT Champions team has adjusted six rounds on Map 3 of the match. This change, in addition to awarding Acend an extra map to compensate for the gun economy, changes the score to 13-9, giving them the series victory.

During Map 3 of the series between Acend and VK, Jonathan "JhoW" Gloria, of Vivo Keyd, violated a rule of the VALORANT Global Competition Policy.
Read more: https://t.co/WjqnDLETnC

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 4, 2021

Details on the camera exploit

The exploit itself revolves around a specific position on the map where Cypher can place his camera and reveal a portion of the map that it shouldn’t be able to see. At the same time, the enemy team cannot see the camera to shoot it down.

Vivo Keyd used the exploit for six rounds, leading to the eventual map win —, but neither the broadcast team nor the enemy team saw the exploit during the match. As explained in the ruling, this camera placement gave an advantage to Vivo Keyd, being able to scout and position around Acend using a bug. The VALORANT Champions team provided unlisted video evidence of how this camera footage was used to Vivo Keyd’s advantage.

This ruling comes after Riot Games paused the match between FURIA and Sentinels due to an apparent exploit that Alexandre “xand” Zizi allegedly used on Haven. Officials paused the match for 15 minutes while they gave xand a warning. Some members of the community are questioning why Riot Games stopped that match and not the one between Acend and Vivo Keyd, even after Sentinels said they did not agree that FURIA was using an exploit.

Meanwhile, the use of the Breeze camera exploit in X10’s match against Galaxy Racer earned the Thai team a series win earlier in the VALORANT Champions Tour. However, after evaluation from the Riot Games officials, the camera was deemed illegal, and X10 were forced to forfeit the series. The loss prevented them from attending VCT Masters 3: Berlin.

Riot Games has confirmed that Acend will play Envy tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. ET.

Update: Riot has since released another update of the Envy game, cancelling Day 4’s Group A match and delaying their decision on Saturday.

“Upon further deliberation, matches in Group A will be delayed to provide additional time to review the ruling against Vivo Keyd. Today’s matches will feature Team Vikings vs Gambit and Team Liquid vs Sentinels. Broadcast will begin 1 hour later than initially scheduled,” the statement said on Twitter.

Upon further deliberation, matches in Group A will be delayed to provide additional time to review the ruling against Vivo Keyd. Today’s matches will feature Team Vikings vs Gambit and Team Liquid vs Sentinels. Broadcast will begin 1 hour later than initially scheduled.

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 4, 2021

Whether Envy will play Vivo Keyd or Acend, is still undecided at the time of this update.

Editors Note: This article has been updated at 11 a.m. EST to include more information about the situation.