Popular streamer Sean Gares has commented on the findings of Riot Games’ investigation into VALORANT match fixing and cheating within the tier two North American scene, revealing his displeasure with the findings and doubling down on his claims.
No evidence of cheating found
Riot’s investigation was initially triggered following Gares’ suspicions of foul play within the NA Challengers league, a tier two VALORANT tournament, some of which he revealed in a now-infamous video titled The Dark Side of Competitive VALORANT. In the video, Gares went in-depth into how alleged match fixers solicit players, and VOD reviewed matches in which he suspected opposition players had cheated in some way.
At the end of last month, Riot released a statement on their investigation, insisting that ‘no evidence’ of misconduct was found, both in the form of match fixing and cheating. Their announcement also included a thinly-veiled callout to Sean Gares, highlighting how ‘false, exaggerated, or unfounded accusations can disrupt lives, divert resources from genuine issues, and undermine trust in the integrity process’ while insisting that ‘reports should always be based on credible evidence or observations’. The former Counter-Strike player had received some community backlash, particularly around his allegations of cheating made in the video, in which the explanations given were based on unusual in-game rather than hard evidence of cheats having been used.
Sean Gares fires back and doubles down
Speaking on stream during Counter-Strike’s IEM Cologne, Sean Gares acknowledged the outcome of Riot’s investigation, starting his response by explaining how he was “disgusted and annoyed” at the company’s handling of the allegations.
The streamer detailed how, following Shopify Rebellion Black’s 2-1 loss to Blue Otter on May 6th, he compiled a breakdown of the rounds from the match which he found suspicious and sent these to Riot the following day on May 7th.
“Riot then picked apart that info, and it took me basically escalating it to the highest people at Riot to get the investigation even started. They weren’t even aware of who I messaged initially and everything from my perspective was beyond disappointing.”
He went on to allege that Riot’s investigation began by sending emails to those involved, requesting written responses, expressing his perplexity at the approach to the investigation.
“What do you think, they’re just going to email you back like: ‘Yeah, I f*****g did it. Yeah, I f*****g did it. Ban me.’ Like what? I just was shocked, because once the ‘bad guys’ are aware, once anyone in that position is aware, you will never catch them. You will never catch them.”
Gares also claimed to have had more evidence that he did not reveal in his video so as not to put innocent parties in harm’s way.
“It was so disappointing to be there first-hand and know what I know right now. I’m not going to sit here and play the f*****g slander game. I’m just not.
“You can say what you want, but it is definitely happening. I have literally massive folders of info that chat just doesn’t know. There’s stuff that I couldn’t share with people because people feared for their safety. And mysteriously enough, those people are no longer playing. Now where was that in their f*****g announcement? That’s weird”
Finding misconduct “not in their company’s best interest”
During his stream, the former Shopify Rebellion general manager called into question Riot’s eagerness to find any wrongdoing, given that it could damage the reputation of their game’s esports circuit.
Gares insisted that viewers “have to realise” that finding misconduct is “not in their company’s best interest”, adding that Riot have decided to “sweep it all under the rug”.
“To know those things, it actually directly hurts their bottom line.”
“These people eventually have big mouths”
Towards the end of his comments on the situation, Gares urged the community to continue the efforts to put a stop to the wrongdoing, with hopes that parties will someday confess to others in confidence.
“What happens is, if you match fix or something like that, these people eventually have big mouths. They tell someone, they might tell their significant other in a relationship. And then one day, those people break up, or one day they tell the wrong person. And that’s how it all comes crumbling down.”
This appears to be a nod to the 2014 Counter-Strike match-fixing scandal in which the team iBUYPOWER were found to have purposely lost a match against NetCodeGuides.com, in which the former were heavy favourites but played unusually poorly throughout their defeat. While the team received immediate allegations of match fixing, it wasn’t until CS player dboorn had incriminating messages leaked by a former partner — in which he admitted to placing bets on behalf of the team — that those involved were caught and punished.
No regrets in revealing VALORANT match fixing allegations
Despite now feeling frozen out of the VALORANT community, Sean Gares insists that he has no regrets over his decision to go public with his allegations, instead believing that he has “always fought for what’s right in the scene”.
“I did that during the CSPPA thing and I’ll continue to do that. I’m not going to apologise for it. And, like I said, I would do it all over again.”
