Riot GamesMultiple Valorant community members have stepped forward alleging that Valorant’s North American tier 2 scene is filled with rigged matches and cheaters, going as far as accusing a Riot employee of enabling players to use in-game cheats without getting caught.
Prominent caster and community member Sean Gares and Tournament Organizer/Team Owner MrFunHaver are the two main sources of this info, with MFH going into a lot more detail across a two-hour livestream.
Both men claimed that there’s an ongoing investigation into the matter from Riot Games and chose not to name specific teams or players who may be involved, partially out of fear that they’d accuse the wrong people.
However, there’s a lot of information to glean out of what both Sean Gares and MFH had to say, especially since the two of them clashed when speaking about the topic. Additionally, Riot has given Dexerto a full, in-depth response to the allegations, confirming that there’s an ongoing investigation and sharing early findings.
NA Valorant tier 2 accused of being “underground gambling ring”
Sean Gares’ brief video statement came out after MrFunHaver’s allegations. Gares claimed that he was investigating the matter for a long time, but felt the need to speak out on it now largely due to MFH discussing it.
“It is infected. Matchfixing, cheating, underground gambling rings, people making hundreds of thousands of dollars on these games that are rigged,” Gares claimed.
He said that many of the teams operating within tier 2 are “desperate,” resorting to making money from alternative means. The amount of money that can be made as a result of betting on games is exponentially higher than winning by normal means.
“They’re getting bribed for tens of thousands of dollars in one instance to throw a game, could even be to fix a ranked game. Whatever you do, they’ve got you by the balls. You know why? They don’t go away, they can blackmail you for eternity. That’s how this game works.”
He expressed that he believes this process ultimately punishes players who aren’t cheating – people who are “actually doing it fair.”
“I’m not ready to talk about what I’ve found. It’d take me hours. The rabbit hole goes so f**king deep, it’s insane. It’s infuriating, it really is. I’m trying to clear as many people as I can. I want people to be innocent.”
However, this video is just part of the story. He spoke in vague terms partially due to not being ready to release his investigation at the time, but was prompted to do so when MrFunHaver went live on Twitch speaking on the topic.
Sean Gares furious at MrFunHaver for breaking Valorant cheating scandal
Gares came into MrFunHaver’s Twitch chat, furious that he was speaking about the subject.
“You are an absolute f**king idiot for saying this right now,” Gares said in the Twitch chat. “Naw, you are actually blowing open a case that I’ve been working on for over a week, if you cared you would shut your f**king mouth.”
Sean Gares’ chat history in MFH’s Twitch streamHe went back and forth with MFH, claiming that doing a stream talking about the situation loosely wouldn’t do anything to solve it, and that speaking about it may make things worse. “Wait ’til I drop the f**king hammer,” he threatened.
Gares continued, “I don’t owe you f**k all and what you’re saying right now is like 1% of what’s actually happening.” MrFunHaver claimed he had no idea that there was an investigation being worked on outside of Riot and apologized to him.
MFH claims that Gares went into his DMs after leaving the stream and sent him this message:
“You f**king idiot, what the f**k are you doing? You’re actually dumb as f**k for saying this on stream, you have no idea that you’re ruining an investigation, I hope I torch your whole f**king team.”
If you’d like full context on their conversation, here’s a timestamped VoD complete with the chat history to see both sides of the exchange that happened over the course of several minutes.
So, what did MFH actually have to say?
Riot accused of being paid off to enable cheating
MrFunHaver’s accusations were significantly more focused on issues of operating within tier 2, claiming that Riot is mishandling the league and severely underfunding it. He claims that this is not only part of the reason why viewership is declining, it’s also why betting is allegedly a huge issue.
“Myself and my own team had people DM saying, ‘Hey, we want to pay you to throw your game,'” he claimed. “The offer was hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, when you look at this person’s betting history on these games, they’re making 20-30 thousand dollars in profit. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s absolutely insane.”
In a league where players are, at times, not paid enough to live, it would be exponentially more profitable to cheat if this were true. Vietnam’s pro LoL league had this problem in 2024.
However, the biggest bit of new info that was brought to light in his stream were accusations against Riot themselves.
“There is an active Riot employee that is very high in the anti-cheat department being paid off to let people cheat,” he claimed.
“You have individual players who are actively cheating, and Riot employees know about it, and they’re being paid not to do anything about it.”
And, while MFH didn’t believe anyone in tier 1 Valorant is cheating, the fact that the winning team within the Challengers league ascends to tier 1 draws into question the validity of which teams actually make it out.
Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesHe levied a number of other accusations toward Riot and the way the scene is run, saying that underfunding affects the entire league and is part of the reason why this issue exists in the first place.
He claimed that some of the side streams for Challengers matches weren’t even run by actual people, but were instead just a replay client left on and observed by AI rather than a real person, making it “unwatchable”.
MFH also claimed that Riot barely covers even the prize pool for tier 2, with almost no other money going to teams or the sustainability of the league.
“You can’t trust Riot, you can’t trust the TO, you can’t trust anything that’s going on with Challengers, so there’s no reason to invest in it.”
Sean Gares releases DMs
A week after the initial set of allegations came to light, Sean Gares released an almost hour long video detailing the extent of matchfixing and showing some of the players and parties involved in rigging games.
Players practo and Teague revealed DMs from Bray, someone who offered anywhere from $20-100k guaranteed to throw matches. They screenshotted conversations as they were going on, with Bray telling them to delete messages and move to Telegram to make DMs disappear after they were sent to cover their trail.
Bray claimed to have several accounts across different sportsbooks, allowing them to make hundreds of thousands of dollars per match without it being connected to one account. He told players they’d be “driving lambos” if they accepted his offer. The amount they’d earn from fixing one match would often be more than players are paid in salary for an entire year. This isn’t the only person he called out for trying to rig matches and bribe teams, either.
Blue Otter is the team that came under the most fire from Gares, with him claiming they were fixing matches and cheating.
They underperformed against Burger Boyz while beating Shopify Rebellion Black, allowing for results that were against the odds and would have paid out much better. Gares VoD reviewed both games, claiming that he had definitive evidence that Blue Otter’s members were throwing intentionally in matches against Burger Boyz and cheating in matches against Shopify to manipulate the odds and make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, not only is the betting on individual matches potentially damaging to the league, this loss against Blue Otter also cost Shopify their spot in the Playoffs. As a result, those players who deserved a chance at trying to move up into the tier 1 league were deprived of that chance if these allegations are true.
Aftermath of Sean Gares exposé
The ripple effect of Gares’ reporting has already been felt through the Valorant community, with Bob getting benched from FlyQuest’s Game Changers team after his allegations came to light.
Bob released a statement of her own on the topic, calling out Sean’s treatment of the situation and claiming that he’s done “irreversable defamation” to the image of all players involved.
“We understand Sean Michael Gares’ stated intention was to help the scene. However, the recent allegations have caused irreparable damage to our players’ reputation and careers. This damage has extended beyond the game itself into our personal lives and will have implications on our future endeavors,” she explained.
She also said that she planned for Riot to clear their names privately as a result of their internal investigation, claiming her innocence and planning to make a response refuting Gares’ claims against the team.
Blue Otter has chosen to stick by their players until more info comes to light.
“We applaud Sean for trying to make the scene a better place by trying to bring problematic players into the light, but we believe he missed the mark on this one,” they explained in a statement.
“We could be extremely disappointed if Fair and Bob are guilty of match fixing and will support any ruling that Riot Games makes.”
Meanwhile, the people he accused of fixing matches have threatened to sue him for it, ironically enough putting a bet on it.
Let’s place a bet [Sean Gares], $100,000. If you can find ANY proof that money was exchanged between me and a player for this so called ‘match fixing’,” he claimed.
“You say you love the game but you have slandered and implicated innocent players. In America, defamation is illegal. There should be a class action done against you.”
Riot Games responds to the allegations
A Riot Games spokesperson has given Dexerto a direct and lengthy response to the allegations against them, claiming no wrongdoing from their anti-cheat team. They vehemently denied that anyone internally was working to assist with any possible matchfixing.
Though the internal investigation is still underway, Riot says they’ve looked into the matter and haven’t yet found anything indicating that a core member of their team was involved in any wrongdoing.
Here’s the full, unedited statement from Riot VP of comms Joe Hixson:
“The recent allegations about North America Challengers have been under active investigation since they were raised to us last week. Let us be clear: we take accusations like these extremely seriously and our Competitive Operations, Anti-Cheat, and Esports Rules & Compliance teams have been thoroughly examining the matter.
“We appreciate everyone who has raised concerns and provided information. Suggestions that a Riot employee deliberately undermined competitive integrity, however, represent an incredibly serious accusation that can unfairly impact individuals personally and professionally. The claims raised to our anti-cheat team are part of this broader investigation, and we have seen nothing so far that indicates complicity or wrongdoing by any member of our anti-cheat team.
“Investigations require time and coordination as we conduct interviews and gather evidence. We will follow established procedures thoroughly and carefully, without being influenced or pressured by external voices.”
He also had a message for us from the Esports Rules and Compliance team, with them saying the following on the subject of matchfixing:
“Safeguarding the integrity of our esports ecosystem is a shared responsibility between players, teams, tournament organizers, and Riot. If you are approached with information related to potential misconduct, we encourage you to preserve any evidence, report it to your team League Officials or Riot, and avoid engaging further. Maintaining the integrity and fairness of competition is paramount, and we appreciate the community’s patience and support as we continue to address this matter comprehensively.”
With that, we have direct confirmation that Riot has launched a full investigation into the matter. Though it isn’t clear just how long it’ll take for the investigation to conclude, they are working to resolve the issue and find any potential wrongdoing as fast as possible.
It’s worth noting that, while Riot has responded to the initial set of allegations against their team, they’ve been quiet since Gares’ video dropped as they go through with their investigation.
