The 32nd Southeast Asian Games’ Valorant tournament ended without a clear winner after the grand final was disrupted by an alleged Cypher cam bug.
The Southeast Asian Games, a biennial multi-sport event featuring sports athletes from across the region, are currently underway in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. For the third time in the event’s history, esports tournaments are being held alongside traditional sports competitions.
The Valorant tournament, featuring six national teams, ended in controversy after the Indonesia team accused the Singapore squad of using a Cypher camera bug during the second map of the grand final.
Indonesia was down 4-10 on Split and 0-1 in the series when the match was paused, seemingly due to technical reasons. It was later revealed that Indonesia had protested against what they deemed to be an illegal placement of Cypher’s spycam ability.
On Twitter, Rafi ‘frostmind’ Diandra, who coached Indonesia in the tournament, posted Discord conversations in which the tournament admins allegedly state that the camera placement is not allowed.
However, Singapore’s Tidus ‘STYRON’ Goh wrote in a Twitlonger post that his team was unaware of such information and that the tournament rulebook and exploit list made no mention of the camera placement that prompted Indonesia’s protest.
On the official stream, viewers were left to wonder what was happening at the event. The technical pause went on for over three hours before the official stream showed the following message: “We are experiencing technical difficulties. Further information on the grand final will be announced soon! We truly apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
According to STYRON, the tournament organizers made a final call only at 4 am. The game would be resumed four hours later with the score tied 5-5 as punishment for the bug used by Singapore at 5-3.
“At 8 am we went back to the stage and finished setting up and by 8:50 we received the news that the Indonesia team has decided to forfeit,” STYRON said.
Juanita ‘Valezka’ Tanjung, the brand ambassador for Indonesia in the SEA Games, is quoted by VALO2ASIA as saying that the decision to forfeit the match was aimed at “upholding the nation’s dignity and considering the unfavorable conditions of the situation.”
Singapore and Indonesia announced as joint-winners
As Singapore’s team waited for the medal ceremony, they were informed of another complaint lodged by Indonesia.
“We had two final choices,” STYRON said. “Either accept the joint gold medal or be stuck in Cambodia for another week to wait for the result of the dispute as we have no other flights back to Singapore. Just take this into perspective.
“We had three female handlers, Indonesia had their whole council and committee protesting. We played by the rules that were conveyed to us, none of us wanted an outcome like this.”
According to VALO2ASIA, Singapore’s players did not attend the medal ceremony “due to an early flight back.”
The incident has sparked a heated debate on social media and on sites like VLR between Indonesian and Singaporean nationals. STYRON claimed that he received threats in private Twitter messages.
Nikhil Hathiramani, the co-founder and CEO of Paper Rex, an organization based in Singapore with a team in the VCT Pacific league, criticized the way that this situation was handled.
“I’ve been wanting to say something about the whole SEAGames2023 controversy but I just don’t know what to say anymore,” he wrote on Twitter. “The simple lesson learned here I think is that we don’t need esports in the Olympics. They need us.”
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