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Vivo Keyd has become the latest team to be penalized for exploiting a camera bug in their Group A match against Team Acend at the Valorant Champions 2021. For similar camera exploits, Riot Games had punished X10 and Giants during this year's VCT.
Exploiting bugs has been a major issue in Valorant since its inception. Although the developer quickly fixes them, each new map and patch brings more such bugs and spots that gamers can use to their advantage.
Result of Vivo Keyd vs Acend upturned in Valorant Champions 2021 due to exploitation of a camera bug on Breeze
Vivo Keyd met Team Acend on Day 3 of the Valorant Champions 2021 for the first match of Group A. The Brazilian squad came into the game as the second favorite against Acend, who qualified as the top seed from the EMEA Circuit Points standings and was tipped to win the title in Berlin.
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Vivo Keyd won the first game on Icebox 13-9 with a pretty respectable performance. Acend pulled one back in from Bind 13-3 in a ruthless fashion that was more on expected lines. After a tensely fought last game in Breeze, Vivo Keyd managed to clinch it 13-8 to cause a massive upset despite Acend trying to mount a late comeback.
Controversy soon followed as it emerged that Vivo Keyd's JhoW, who was playing as Cypher, was placing his agent's camera in a spot considered an exploit by Riot.
X10 was forced to forfeit Map 1 against Galaxy Racer at the VCT SEA Stage 3 due to bug abuse on Breeze. Similarly, Vodafone Giants were found to abuse a similar advantage with a Cypher camera and punished by Riot via a one-map loss.
The problem lies in the A-site of the Breeze map, where Cypher can place his camera such that enemies can't spot it at first due to texture issues. However, Cypher can see the enemies, giving an undue advantage to the defenders on this site.
In Riot's ruling, Vivo Keyd was judged to have violated Rule 7.2.6 of the Valorant Global Competition Policy. Since JhoW used the Cypher camera exploit in six rounds of the match, Vivo Keyd had to forfeit the rounds they won in those six, four of them, to Acend.
Riot granted a further round to Acend because of the economic impact of those six rounds on the subsequent rounds. This brought the score to 13-9 in favor of Acend, helping them win the series 2-1.
Valorant community seems divided on the decision
Fans of the Brazilian outfit are expectedly furious with the decision. Since this was an unexpected huge upset in the tournament, the ruling has gone done poorly with the supporters.
They also have alleged that dapr from Sentinels did the same thing in their match against FURIA. In reply, others have pointed out that dapr's camera setup has been around for a while and is not in the same spot as the exploit.
Even the Valorant community has largely been divided on the matter. Many say that the punishment is unfair compared to what was meted out to the other two previously.
While people have pointed out the high-profile nature of previous cases meant that JhoW must have known about the bug, others have been quick to point out that not everyone follows all the matches due to their timings and languages.
Another huge issue is the fact that although the exploit has been around for a while, Riot has not fixed it. Valorant players from the community agreed that Vivo Keyd should have been punished for using the exploit but that the whole issue should have been resolved by the developer a long time back, i.e., when the X10 and Giants issues happened.
With the ruling already in place, it is improbable there will be any change or consensus among the online community regarding that. It can only be hoped that Riot quickly fixes this, and such incidents no longer mar the rest of the Valorant Champions 2021.
