Vivo Keyd Cypher cam exploit: What happened?

Update: In the early hours of Dec. 5, Riot changed their original competitive ruling. The new ruling resulted in a replay of Map 3, giving Acend a 7-0 lead to account for the six rounds Vivo Keyd used the exploit, plus one economy round. Acend won the replayed map and moved on to face Envy. Full details of the competitive ruling can be read on the VALORANT esports website. The original article is below.

Friday’s game between Brazil’s Vivo Keyd and Europe’s Acend at VALORANT Champions became surrounded by controversy after a competitive ruling issued by Riot that changed the results of the match.

The original outcome of the match was a 2-1 victory for Vivo Keyd over Acend with a deciding victory on Breeze. However, during the match, Upcomer reported that Vivo Keyd player Jonathan "JhoW" Gloria used a Cypher cam on Breeze in a location that was known to be an exploit and thus illegal. The camera gave Vivo Keyd an unfair competitive advantage when it comes to the vision of A site. Furthermore, it was something that Riot Games has penalized two other teams for in the past by having them forfeit the map.

At 9:49 p.m. ET -- 3:49 a.m. in Berlin, where the tournament is happening -- Riot Games issued a ruling addressing the Cypher cam exploit. In a statement, Riot said:

“During map three of the match between Acend and Vivo Keyd, Jonathan “JhoW” Glória from Vivo Keyd violated Rule 7.2.6 of the VALORANT Global Competition Policy by using a Cypher camera placement that is not functioning as intended and violates the design purpose of VALORANT. JhoW used the Cypher camera exploit on six (6) rounds of the match.”

Those six rounds were awarded to Acend as well as an additional round for “economic impact” which made the map score 13-9 in favor of Acend. The change in score altered the overall result of the match, which meant that Acend was determined the winner.

Instead of Envy playing in the winner’s match of Group A against Vivo Keyd, they would play against Acend.

The reason Riot gave for not stopping the game when it happened with a tech pause is because it was not immediately obvious and Acend did not report it.

The ruling was met with a lot of backlash online, especially in Brazil where the hashtag #justiceforkeyd started trending.

Some of the responses on Twitter were critical of the decision, while others explained why the decision was justified. Sympathy for the players on both teams because of the unusual situation was also a common sentiment.

VALORANT observer Mel’s comment that Riot tends to listen to the community and the ruling might change proved to be prescient.

On Saturday at 7:45 a.m. ET, Riot appeared to be open to reconsidering, saying it would be looking into the ruling further.

The scheduled Envy-Acend match that was set to take place Saturday was taken off the schedule. As of this writing, it is unknown when Riot will make a final decision and when the Group A winner’s match will take place. Given the speed with which Riot has spoken on this issue, it’s likely we will know within the next day or so.

Lead photo credit: Riot Games