It's a bloodbath in North America, as several Valorant teams find themselves releasing newly recruited or probationary players. It follows a series of scandals that have surfaced in the Moutain Dew League, based on seemingly widespread matchmaking.
The Moutain Dew League is a semi-professional league popular with amateurs who want to gain experience or get noticed by the different organizations. The cash prizes are only a few thousand dollars but for players who have never received any money in competition it's still something.
It's also possible to bet on the outcome of these matches. There is a lot of money to be made from these bets, now imagine several hundred amateur players, doubting their ability to become pros in a hyper-competitive environment, constantly tempted to throw a match and bet it all on the opposing team to hit the jackpot in an instant. You can see why matchmaking is so prevalent in MDL.
It's not uncommon for a team to be accused of losing a game a little too easily in MDL, but it usually ends there. No one has the time to investigate every amateur team with a disappointing performance. Recently, several of these aspiring pros have left CS:GO for Valorant — where the best CS players haven't migrated (yet) and where the competition is still in its beginnings. When one of these future champions is finally signed by a big organization, the public doesn't fail to examine its past.
The two brothers, Shanks and Poised, were both rejected by Dignitas, Shanks was still in trial while Poised had already been accepted into the team. A year ago they were officiating with Blood, Sweat, and Tears — an MGL team that was noted for particularly suspicious defeats.
The same goes for C4lypso, after having participated in strange defeats within Big Frames, he finally moved to Valorant by signing with Team Envy — before being caught up by the accusations. C4lypso was quickly taken out of the active roster and will probably remain on the bench until the team has completed its investigation.
Is Marved also in danger? Faze's player was part of Blood, Sweat, and Tears with Shanks and Poised. The organization hasn't taken any action so far.
Original content by Augustin "Review" Heliot.
To support its Valorant team in its progress, Cloud 9 has decided to reinforce its technical staff. A head coach and a strategic coach have been added to the project.
