Team Singapore's esports athletes clinched their first SEA Games gold medal since video games were added to the sports competition, but not without controversy.
The Singapore versus Indonesia gold medal match for the Mixed VALORANT (PC) event took a twist on Wednesday (10 May), when Indonesia accused the Singapore squad of abusing a Cypher bug that allowed them vision over their competitors.
Indonesia was down 4-10 when the game took a technical pause that lasted for at least two hours, before the stream ended without a conclusion.
The Indonesian squad claimed that Singapore's placement of VALORANT Agent Cypher's camera was illegally placed.
The game was not resumed, and players were told to return in the morning to complete the games, a spokesperson for the Singapore Esports Association (SGEA) told Yahoo Southeast Asia .
The VALORANT team of Tidus 'STYRON' Goh, Ayrton 'artn' Soh, Yeoh 'Divine' Chun Ting, Ingram 'FREY' Tan, Rodman 'vera' Yap and Marcus 'nephh' Tan were awarded the gold medal on Thursday after their Indonesia forfeited the match.
Tidus "Styron" Goh also tweeted that he was receiving "death threats in DMs" after the incident, and that the best-of-3 match between Singapore and Indonesia had already lasted 11 hours.
Indonesian player Rafi "frostmind" Diandra, however, tweeted that a conversation with the admins had allegedly said that the camera placements were not allowed, and showed off screenshots to back up his claims.
With the match set to resume this morning, Indonesia decided to forfeit, giving Singapore the gold.
"Indonesia forfeits the grand final in protest of an unfair decision. They will still be recorded as the silver medalist and will receive all rights and benefits accorded to that position," said Frengky Ong, Secretary General of Indonesian Esports General Board (PBESI).
With the forfeit, Singapore takes its first-ever esports Gold at the SEA games since esports was introduced as a medal sport at the 2019 SEA Games.
Yahoo Southeast Asia has also reached out to Riot Games, the publisher for VALORANT, for comment.
Singapore VALORANT squad
1. Tidus "Styron" Goh
2. Ingram "Frey" Tan
3. Yeoh "Divine" Ting
4. Rodman "Vera" Yap
5. Marcus "Nephh" Tan
Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products atcanbuyornot.com
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