Popular Valorant streamer JimmyJam has been banned for alleged cheating while playing Swift Play in one of Riot's headquarters.
Riot Games, the company behind League of Legends and Valorant, is dedicated to preventing hackers and cheaters from ruining its games. This is the reason why the company has employed various methods of thwarting such bad actors, including the Vanguard anti-cheat system in Valorant. While the system is not perfect, Vanguard still does its job for the most part.
Recently, Vanguard was put to the test in an event involving a streamer who goes by the name JimmyJam. For those who don't know, JimmyJam is a North American Valorant esports player-turned-streamer who previously played for UnitedERA.
Anyway, JimmyJam, along with some fellow streamers, got invited to one of Riot's HQs, possibly for some playtesting. He and his buddies engaged in Swift Play, a 5v5 game mode where the first team to win five rounds is declared the victor.
Just when things were going well, JimmyJam seemingly got banned, evidenced by a video posted by his fellow streamer, ahad:
LMFAOOOOO @JimmyJamTV GOT BANNED MID SWIFT PLAY AT RIOT HQ pic.twitter.com/eZU8J24aJx
— ahad (@ahad) May 22, 2023
Reason for the Ban
JimmyJam has yet to make an official statement regarding the matter at the time of writing. It is possible that Vanguard was just a little too aggressive and accidentally banned the well-known streamer. However, this could be more serious than previously thought because some Valorant players who saw the video claimed that they also got banned for no apparent reason.
According to one Twitter user, they got falsely banned with no explanation whatsoever. They are hoping that with this recent event involving someone popular like JimmyJam, the issue with false bans will get resolved soon.
Another user replied that they got banned as well. When they contacted Riot Support to have the ban rescinded, they were told that there was nothing the team could do. This user believes that the issue is too widespread and that it's very unlikely that all of the people who got banned were actually cheating.
With all of that being said, JimmyJam is a well-known figure in the community, so there's a good chance that he will get his account back.
What can you say about this? Should Riot Games look more into this problem as many claimed that Vanguard had wrongfully banned them?
