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Riot hand ex-Resurgence VALORANT players three-year bans for match-fixing

(Photo: RSG Facebook page)
(Photo: RSG Facebook page)

Riot Games have suspended the former VALORANT roster of Singapore-based organisation Resurgence, now known as RSG, from competing in the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) after two of of the team's players were found guilty of match-fixing.

Riot revealed that Malcolm “Germsg” Chung and Ryan “Dreamycsgo” Tan violated rules against "manipulating the outcome of a competitive VALORANT match for monetary gain" in a match against BlackBird Ignus during the VALORANT Ignition Series in September last year.

Riot's investigation into the incident found that both Germsg and Dreamycsgo coordinated to bet against their own team in their match against BlackBird Ignis, with Germsg initiating the scheme and Dreamycsgo providing the capital.

Riot also discovered that Germsg informed the rest of the then-Resurgence roster about their scheme. While the rest of the team did not want to participate in the match-fixing, they also "purposefully concealed" the issue from their management and VALORANT Esports officials because they were "concerned about penalties and risking their contracts with [Resurgence]."

The fixed match resulted in a 2-0 win for BlackBird Ignis, after which Germsg attempted to pay off his teammates, but was rejected. Resurgence disbanded their VALORANT roster the following month.

Riot ruled that both Germsg and Dreamycsgo will be banned from competing in the VCT for 36 months. The ban was considered to have begun with the original suspension date on 22 April 2021, with the pair becoming eligible to return to competitive VALORANT in April 2024.

Despite not actively participating in the match-fixing scheme, the rest of the roster have also been handed penalties for being aware of the situation and failing to inform their management and tournament officials.

Justin “Boplek” Wong Chong Cheng and Sengdala “Jabtheboy” Jamnalong have been banned from the VCT for one year while Du Min “Mortdecai” Yeo and Benedict “Benaf” Tan received six-month bans.

According to Riot, the severity of the penalties for the rest of the players on the roster were reduced "based on the level of culpability and their cooperation with the VALORANT Esports investigation".

"Maintaining the competitive integrity of our tournaments is our top priority and we take such matters extremely seriously. All players are expected to abide by the rules of fair play, agreed upon prior to participation in the tournaments. Violations of the rules of fair play will not be tolerated by VALORANT Esports," added Riot in its ruling.

“We take a very firm stand on player integrity and do not condone match-fixing. When we found out about the incident, we alerted the organisers immediately and cooperated fully with the investigations,” a RSG spokesperson said when contacted by Yahoo Esports about the ban.

RSG have not signed a new VALORANT roster since the incident.

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