G2 Esports and Movistar Riders sanctioned by Riot Games
Following an investigation by Riot Games, G2 Esports has received a warning for unauthorised, non-advantageous communication from the coach. Movistar Riders received a point reduction, as a result of unauthorised, advantageous communication from the coach. We imagine thatthe recent incident with dd8, T1's coach, has prompted the studio to carry out some checks.
Unauthorised communications
The section 7.2.11 of the Regulation, concerning unauthorised communications has been in the news for some days. As a reminder, it stipulates that:
At Live Events, all communication devices other than devices authorized by the Tournament Operator and Tournament Officials for use at that Live Event must be removed from the play area before any Official Game begins. Players may not text/email or use social media while in the match area. During the match, communication by a player shall be limited to the other players on the Team.
Link to the regulation
A coach is only allowed to communicate with his team during the match during tactical breaks. Outside of these times, any form of communication is prohibited, whether it is beneficial to the team or not.
G2 Esports called to order
In this first EMEA Closed Qualifier for Challengers, G2 Esports faced Vitality in quarter-finals. During the match, Daniil Mesheryakov, aka pipsoN, G2's coach, did not respect the rule mentioned above. It is not clear what was said in the chat. However, Riot states that it wasan isolated communication, and for celebratory purposes. In other words, the communication was unlikely to have benefited his team. In view of the circumstances, the tournament officials decided to give only a warning to the European organisation without further sanction.
Shortly after this revelation, pipsoN has publicly apologised for his mistake. He reiterated that he had lost his temper after a clutch and assured that this would not happen again. The organisation has not yet made a statement.
This is the penalty for Movistar Riders
Unlike G2 Esports, the organisation Movistar Riders receives a real penalty: a deduction of 3 points from their total points in the Spanish VRL. This penalty represents a defeat. This fine follows an unauthorised communication from the coach, Lucas Rojo aka LRojo. During a match in the second Open Qualifier for the EMEA Challengers against Rix.GG Thunder, he provided tactical instructions to his team, outside of the scheduled times. While no information was provided by Riot as to the content of the messages, the studio considered the information to be incriminating and punishable.
The organisation did not give any information about LRojo's future as a coach, but apologised to the Valorant community for this mistake.
If one could think that thedd8 incident was an isolated case, it would appear that more than one team is not strictly adhering to the rules. It is possible that Riot Games is doing more analysis of previous matches to check the integrity of the games played. Other structures could therefore also receive sanctions in the coming days.
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