Riot adds VCT stream-sniping rule after competitive integrity concerns

Riot Games have added a rule to protect against stream-sniping in the Valorant Champions Tour after competitive integrity concerns emerged from the lack of clarification.

After a chorus of concerns from players and coaches, Valorant teams will no longer be able to tune into the broadcast of their VCT match while the game is live. “During official matches coaches may only watch from the perspective of the in-game coach’s slot,” NSG tournament admin Josie said. “They are prohibited from watching live broadcasts as that provides additional information on the behaviour of the opposing team beyond what is visible from the PoV of the coach’s team.” The rule will take immediate effect for upcoming VCT games.

Previously, Josie had relayed the message that there was no VCT rule disallowing teams from watching their official matches as it’s being streamed. This sparked reactions from players and fans due to the ambiguity of Valorant teams seemingly being allowed to stream-snipe during VCT Challengers qualifiers and beyond. At the time, Valorant Head coach for Soniqs Esports Reid ‘x0tek’ Johnson was baffled after getting clarification on the rule, knowing that other teams and players had done so before. “I guess the next pause I’m telling my team every setup the other team is using, where they’re using their util, how they’re defaulting, rotating, etc.,” x0tek said. “We’ll use this since it’s allowed (haven’t up until this point), but this needs to change ASAP.” https://twitter.com/x0tek/status/1488602393097175040 Before the rule change, Josie explained that Riot Games lacked any rule for watching a stream during a match. NSG permit it since broadcasts have a stream delay and the TO has “no way to police who’s watching the stream to enforce” this type of rule. This comes on the heels of T1’s head coach being suspended after Riot ruled his communications to the team during its VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers qualifying series against TSM.

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The case against T1’s coach shined a light on the conduct that is or isn’t allowed during a game. Riot did not respond to Dexerto’s request for comment.

The situation in Valorant was similar to controversies in CS:GO during the online era. Team Vitality were fined $10,000 in January 2021 after Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) concluded they had breached its rule on stream-sniping. In that case, ESIC concluded Vitality was at fault, but they did not believe the players had received a competitive advantage for having the game on. For VCT, the potential to receive extra information about the opponent’s setups and approach to rounds was troubling for Valorant stakeholders. “This ain’t right,” Oxygen Esports IGL James ‘Nurfed’ McFadden said. “I mean no way to really enforce it if the coach is logged off on Twitch but ‘allowing’ it is … not right.” https://twitter.com/Nurfed/status/1488606199511670784 https://twitter.com/Vanityxz/status/1488630167404752898 https://twitter.com/zacklombardo/status/1488617212780945408 https://twitter.com/Elmapuddy/status/1488613551598039044 Nurfed said the rule could provide “an unfair advantage” though didn’t think it could immediately sway results. Others echoed a similar sentiment. “My coach cant say ‘nice’ or encourage us but take a tac pause and tell me everything they do,” Cloud9 Blue’s Anthony ‘vanity’ Malaspina said.

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Riot has now amended the issue as teams in VCT expected more proactive measures to protect anyone from potentially stream-sniping in an official game.