Recently, in a VCT qualifier, Mica from Tokyo Avengers has been accused of using aim hacks. The LAN event took place in Indonesia during the Split One Open Qualifier. The player managed to get the hack working live during the game, bypassing all the anti-cheat softwares. Let’s take a look at how the events unfolded during this tournament.
Netflix.exe Another Word.exe?
Similar to the famous “word.exe” cheating scandal in Counter-Strike, Mica is accused of having used a similarly named cheat to bypass Riot Vanguard (Valorant’s anti-cheat software). The caster Bredel posted a story online showcasing a folder on Mica’s computer containing the cheats. Among the files was Netflix.exe and a text file showing how to activate the cheat. The steps were listed in simple language and included instructions to bypass Vanguard as well.
Cheater Was Flagged Suspicious by Personnel and Not Any Software
The tricky part for the developers here was that the cheat was flagged suspicious manually by a person, and the anti-cheat software failed to pick up on this software. This puts Riot in a very tough position internally, as the use of this software might be prevalent on the servers with the anti-cheat software not detecting aim hacks.
Valorant has always been able to crack down on cheaters fairly quickly, and the cheater problems aren’t as prevalent as they are in other games. Though the rise of this one incident has caught the eye of many, Riot should be quick in banning the use of this software now that the developers are aware of it.
No official statements have been released by Riot yet.
The teammates of the alleged cheat user, Tokyo Angels, have come out claiming that the person, Mika, had been accused of using cheats in his past, but was cleared by the team for all anti-cheating checks, allowing him to participate in the tournament. They still strongly denied the allegations, and more is yet to come from their camp regarding the verdict.
At the same time, Riot has issued a statement to everyone who has been asking about what’s going on. They’ve said that they have to investigate this matter internally. And at this moment, they would not be able to comment on this situation.
Though Tokyo Avengers have been strong in backing up the player, it looks like a tough road ahead for them to counter the allegations that have been thrown against him. A detailed explanation is needed regarding the cheat tutorial Word file that was recently exposed. A list of detailed steps on how to use the software and how to bypass every anti-cheat associated is what the tutorial contained. I personally don’t see a way out of this for Tokyo Avengers, and I’m really interested to see how Riot officially deals with this whole situation.
Valorant never had solid cheaters ruining the game, but there have been multiple instances of hackers entering into tournaments. In all honesty, when you compare Valorant with other titles such as Call of Duty and CS: GO, the number of cheaters detected is marginally less. The anti-cheat software used in Valorant was able to pick up a wave of cheaters on launch, and since then, the game has been seeing far fewer cheaters in its games.
