DD8, T1 coach, temporarily suspended

Following its forced forfeit against TSM during the VCT NA Qualifiers, an internal investigation was conducted at T1. The decision has been made, the coach David dd8 Denis is suspended from his duties for the second Qualifier.

DD8 admits his fault

Yesterday we reported on an offence committed by T1's coach during their last match at the NA Open Qualifiers. As a reminder, the coach had allowed himself a forbidden communication during the match. While no information about the exact content of the message was released by Riot Games, dd8 itself explained the reason for the forfeit in a TweetLonger.

It was learned that he provided information during a round by writing ' Help Sewers ' in the chat. According to him, he was caught up in the heat of the moment and did not think about the consequences of this communication.

In the same TweetLonger, Davis Denis apologises to the organisation, but also to the whole community that supports T1:

First and foremost I want to make it clear that I regret my actions. I did not represent our players, T1, or our fans well, and I’m truly sorry. I will continue to reflect on my actions and ensure that this never happens again.

In addition, the coach wishes to reassure the fans and explains that this act only concerns him personally. The entire T1 team, coaches and players alike, have never engaged in any form of cheating:

I also want to emphasize that the players and other coaches on T1 have all acted with the highest integrity, and have worked incredibly hard to bring the team to this level of competition. They deserve the full support of the T1 community and fans. I’m honored to continue to work with them, and committed to coaching this team with excellence.

Marsh Joe confirms temporary suspension

The future of dd8 within T1 seemed uncertain. After the internal investigation, the structure decided to reprimand him by suspending him from the next Qualifier. After this weekend, he will remain in place as head coach for the rest of the season.

Joe Marsh, T1 CEO, spoke about this in an interview with UpComer. He explains that this decision is fair in view of the situation:

T1 decided to punish David and suspend him for this weekend’s event partly because we wanted to show that we would have won regardless. He broke the rules and there needs to be consequences for those actions, but I think being gone from the team in a competitive nature, where we have a four day event that we should be pretty competitive in without our head coach, I think it’s a just punishment for what he did.

The leader also expressed his gratitude to the supporters who remain loyal to the organisation and the players despite this delicate situation.

We don’t want to hurt our own community and fans. We appreciate you for sticking with us. I know it’s not easy being a fan when you are kind of in the line of fire right now, but I just appreciate them sticking up for the team and players.

He also said that an assistant coach would be present for the players during the Qualifier, namely Cody Stunner MacLeod. Will the team qualify for Challengers 1? Suspense!

A vague regulation?

All teams should take this incident as an example and follow the rules, as T1's CEO says:

To be honest, I think that this was a wakeup call for everybody. We deserve the punishment and we’re owning it, and we accept it. And hopefully we can bounce back this week. But I think it’s a good reminder for the rest of the teams regarding fair play.

While it is undeniable that structures must have integrity, it is possible that some are confused by the different rules in force. One point in particular was raised via social media : it appears that the rules do not prohibit coaches from watching the match stream, in addition to their access to their players' views.

A coach can therefore take information about the opponent's game. In order to avoid this possibility, the matches are broadcast with a delay of several minutes. Although it is impossible to get live information about the enemy's actions, this still offers the possibility to understand their rotations or the placement of the utilities, among others.

With this incident and the ensuing furore, discussions are likely to have taken place at Riot. New measures will soon appear in the regulations of Valorant competitions. This is confirmed by a screenshot of a discussion posted by Reid Johnson, head coach at Soniqs Esports.

It seems that the information has been clarified. From now on, coaches are no longer allowed to watch the match via the stream, but only through the coach view provided by Riot since Patch 2.08.

A final reminder to all Valorant players: cheating is bad !