Riot has handed down a 12-month ban to Valorant pro player and top EU Ranked player Yasin “Nisay” Gök for cheating in a Ranked match. The official Valorant esports account for Turkey announced the ban earlier today, citing an official investigation by Riot Games into the player.
As a result, Gök has also been dropped by his team Beşiktaş Esports and his contract has been terminated. In a TwitLonger response (which we translated from Turkish using Google Translate), Gök called on Riot Games to provide evidence of the third-party software that proves he cheated.
"I personally think I am being wronged, but I cannot do anything against a company like Riot," Gök said. "I request Riot to show me proof of the 3rd party software they detected and that it is cheating."
Neither Riot or the official Turkey account has provided details of Gök's offenses. Curiously, Gök claims that the offending account hasn't been banned from normal play as would usually be the case when Valorant's Vanguard anti-cheat software catches a cheater.
Unfortunately, this is hardly the first time Valorant's pro scene has been subject to official discipline. Just a few weeks ago, Spanish esports team Movistar Riders dropped Rui "rapaztriste" Fonseca for using cheats during a qualifier. Overall, Valorant's cheat policing still seems better than other popular shooters, possibly thanks to Vanguard's sophistication as a kernel-level driver that keeps running when you're not playing. The comparably invasive anti-cheat software caused a bit of a stir around the time of Valorant's launch last year.
