The women’s team Fallacy is accused of cheating in a tournament in Valorant. Allegedly, a player’s boyfriend played on her account during the match. A Google Docs was published as evidence, comparing the game settings of the player and her boyfriend.
Who is Team Fallacy? Team Fallacy is a women’s team that plays Valorant professionally. The roster of Team Fallacy currently consists of the 4 players (via vlr.gg):
- Cyn
- ketarys
- Kazler
- mars
What is the Galorants Astral Clash event? In this event, teams composed solely of women compete against each other in Valorant.
The tournament took place from July 22 to July 24, 2022. The competition, where cheating allegedly occurred, was an LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier). This means that Team Fallacy secured a spot in the upcoming Astral Clash LAN tournament in California in the contested match.
Here you can see a trailer for the Valorant agent Fade:
Payen allegedly played instead of mars
What is Team Fallacy accused of? Allegedly, the partner of a player played for his girlfriend in the tournament.
Who is the boyfriend that allegedly filled in? Mars’ boyfriend is known as a former TSM player: payen. TSM stands for Team SoloMid and is an e-sports organization with professional Valorant teams. Payen played for some time in the TSM Academy roster (via liquipedia.net).
It is suspected that payen filled in for mars and played for her on her account.
What is stated in the Google Docs document with the evidence? The document consists of eight pages of alleged evidence for the cheat. There are many screenshots and explanations of why mars’ boyfriend is said to have played for her.
For example, it refers to a specific 1v5 clip in another match, where mars’ team’s reaction would not have matched her win. Allegedly, this video was already faked.
Keybinds are also addressed, where mars would normally use “F” instead of “C” for her ultimate.
If you want to know more about the evidence, you can access the Google Docs here (via google.com).
Did mars cheat? Alleged evidence was gathered and published in the Google Docs. However, it cannot currently be said with certainty whether mars cheated or not.
So far, there have been no official statements from Riot Games or mars regarding the cheating allegations. Therefore, the allegations remain unconfirmed speculation.
What does the community say about the allegations? Jake Lucky posted on his Twitter account on July 26, 2022 (via Twitter):
Below the text, a video with gameplay can be seen. Subsequently, @JakeSucky posts screenshots from the document with the evidence and links the Docs.
The translated text in English reads: “In a recently released document, a female Valorant team called Team Fallacy was accused of using a member’s boyfriend during an Astral Clash event. It includes that the alleged boyfriend had this 1v4 clutch and this ace.”
Many believe that mars cheated and find the allegations problematic. @rinaeles fears: “If this is true, not only did they ruin this specific game, but an entire view of the female Valorant scene/tournaments in general. I thought the CSGS situation back then would have taught people something.”
Perhaps my user @rinaeles is referring to the incident of a CSGO tournament where cheaters won.
Some users comment amusingly about the accusations, such as @Leakdd2, who writes: “Boyfriend cheat activate” or @IIIIIIIIIIII, who simply comments “LOL”.
Why is the topic sensitive? The discussion suggests that women cannot play “well,” but that there must always be something suspicious when a woman performs well in a shooter.
The topic has come up more frequently in the past:
- In one case, the woman was as good as assumed. The Overwatch player Geguri disproved any doubt about her gaming skill, causing players who bet against her to have to abandon their careers.
- In another case, the supposed professional player was actually a man and merely a facade of a male player who wanted to prove that he received more attention as a woman.
The constant debate over whether women are really good at games greatly annoys many good female players: For example, Twitch streamer Hafu was statistically the best in Teamfight Tactics and far superior to the “male experts,” but she had to hear that she was favored by the manufacturer just because she is a woman. For her, it clearly exemplifies that gaming is still dominated by men and that some have a problem with women.
The streamer Pokimane ranked in the top 0.5% in Valorant. But she heard that she was just boosted:
Twitch streamer reaches Rank Immortal in Valorant – Has to hear, “she was boosted”
