This Cypher bug got a team punished during VCT Champions

Riot Games has delayed the Group A matches at VCT Champions to review the original decision of taking away a win from Vivo Keyd over the exploiting of a game-changing bug. 

Valorant Champions Tour is finally going down in Berlin to crown the best team in the world after a series of tournaments. However, things aren’t going as smoothly as expected. A months-old bug has cost Vivo Keyd a significant win at VCT, but Riot Games is now deliberating its decision.  

Upon further deliberation, matches in Group A will be delayed to provide additional time to review the ruling against Vivo Keyd. Today’s matches will feature Team Vikings vs Gambit and Team Liquid vs Sentinels. Broadcast will begin 1 hour later than initially scheduled.

— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) December 4, 2021

What’s the Cypher bug on Breeze? 

There’s a long-standing Cypher camera bug on Breeze, which provides heavy intel on A site without the enemy detecting the cam’s location. Since enemies entering the area can’t shoot the camera, it gives an unfair advantage. This is a well-known bug, but there isn’t really any way to play around it. 

This bug was first highlighted in June during a professional game between team BREF and Vodafone Giants, where the latter had exploited to gain an edge in the game. Months later, Vivo Keyd’s professional player JhoW used the Cypher camera exploits on six rounds during the first Valorant major against team Acend. Exploiting this breaches rule 7.2.6 of Valorant, putting Vivo Keyd in an awkward spot since they won the game. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qBo8qw-F8w

The bug only came to the admins’ notice once the game wrapped up in favor of Vivo Key. 

Riot Games grants win to Acend after Vivo Keyd exploit a bug 

After the community backlash, the publisher released a statement that granted Acend a win over Vivo Keyd. Riot Games moved Vivo Keyd’s six rounds of exploit into Acend’s court, which changed the scoreline to 12-9. To account for the economic impact of the six forfeited rounds, Riot awarded Acend with one more round, ultimately taking the win away from Vivo Keyd. 

While this decision appeared fair to some, many questioned Riot’s inability to fix the months-old bug and the admin’s decision to let the match go on despite the exploit. According to Riot’s blog, the bug wasn’t “reported by a participating team” or was obvious enough, which is why the match didn’t pause. 

Since the initial statement, Riot has released another update delaying the Group A-game. It remains to be seen how Riot updates the ruling after the original verdict. The decision might change the opponent for the upcoming game involving Team Envy. Currently, Vivo Keyd is awaiting their loser’s bracket game. If Riot reverses the ruling, Acend might move to the loser’s game in favor of Vivo Keyd.