Valorant pro banned after showing himself stream sniping

Aspiring Valorant pro and Twitch streamer S2Aval has been banned from the platform for blatant stream sniping. 

It’s not just toxic players and hackers you need to watch out for in Valorant, as stream snipers can be just as irritating for anyone with a following on Twitch. Team Synergy’s content creator diaamond exposed a Twitch streamer who was watching his stream in the background to gather intel. 

diaamond’s recent stream honed in on S2Aval, with the latter player getting caught red-handed stream sniping during a ranked match. diaamond was matched up against a seemingly unstoppable Phoenix player who’d keep killing diaamond at unexpected hiding points. S2Aval completely brushed off diaamond when accused of cheating, but a silly mistake landed him in hot water. 

It’s not tough to figure out someone is stream sniping, but proving it can be tricky. Luckily, diaamond didn’t have to do much, as S2A mistakenly showed it on his Livestream that he was indeed cheating to win. The streamer could be seen alt-tabbing, which showed his PC’s activities. Unsurprisingly, diaamond’s twitch stream was open in one of his tabs. He switched the scene, but not fast enough. Diaamond clipped the moment and posted it on Twitter and Reddit, getting the attention of thousands of Valorant players. 

What is stream sniping?

Stream sniping is a form of cheating in online games where one player watches a broadcast of the game they are competing in to gain information they otherwise wouldn’t be privy to. It is particularly prevalent in battle royales as fans can easily track and potentially defeat their favorite streamers, but it is also an issue in MOBAs and tactical shooters as well.

While stream sniping is often not taken as seriously as other cheating offenses, it’s a clear violation of Twitch rules. The platform’s TOS clearly mention that any sort of cheating is bannable on Twitch and stream sniping is considered as such. 

 “Any activity, such as cheating, hacking, botting, or tampering, that gives the account an unfair advantage in an online multiplayer game, is prohibited. This also includes exploiting another broadcaster’s live broadcast in order to harass them in-game, such as stream sniping,” Twitch says. 

Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to report a stream sniper with solid evidence. However, in this case, diaamond’s clip was incontrovertible proof that S2Aval was blatantly “exploiting” diaamond’s broadcast to gain an advantage. S2Aval’s Twitch channel is currently unavailable on Twitch, which means authorities have noticed diaamond’s post and taken the necessary action. It’s unclear how long this ban will last.