COMPETITIVE RULING: EMMA “EULA” MATTIE

Jul 13, 2022

TL;DR: Emma “Eula'' Mattie was found to have repeatedly queued together into Competitive alongside players on purchased accounts with intentionally tanked Match Making Rating (“MMR”). Eula violated the VALORANT Global Policies and Terms of Service by manipulating Competitive MMR in order to play lower MMR opponents and easily gain Rank Rating. Consequently, Eula is banned from any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned competition for three months, beginning from the date of the latest violation to September 13th, 2022.

CONTEXT

All VALORANT players must abide by the Riot Games Terms of Use (“ToS”). Section 7 of the ToS highlights any activity intended to “boost” an account’s status or rank as an activity that may warrant disciplinary measures. VALORANT players and coaches involved in Riot-sanctioned leagues must also abide by Section 7 of the VALORANT Champions Tour Global Competition Policy, which prohibits all behavior designed to circumvent fair matchmaking rules of the Competitive mode in order to increase an account’s rating. Prohibited behavior includes intentionally queuing up with accounts with intentionally tanked MMR in order to gain rating from lower MMR matches.

TIMELINE

All registered VCT Game Changers competitors are subject to an Anti-Cheat scan. Eula’s accounts were flagged for suspicious activity. Upon further review, Anti-Cheat found a number of games in which Eula queued together with four other players, three of whom were on purchased accounts. These purchased accounts had played several unrated games with zero kills and deaths to farm XP and then had intentionally tanked multiple competitive games to reach very low MMR. Eula and the remaining player stayed on their high MMR accounts. The group queued together in order to give the two highly rated accounts dramatically easier matches in multiple instances over multiple days, with the latest offense on June 13th, 2022. The two players (including Eula) on highly rated accounts gained around 200-300 Rank Rating (“RR”) as a result of MMR manipulation.

As part of an actioning wave, the purchased low MMR accounts were permanently banned. The high MMR accounts that queued together with the purchased accounts were administered a ban for one year from the last instance of MMR manipulation.

During the course of investigation, we reviewed i) extensive screenshots of the alleged violation and of correspondence between the accused and ii) direct evidence from Riot Anti-Cheat revealing matchmaking manipulation. Additionally, we conducted interviews with involved parties, including Eula, who was forthcoming about the allegations levied against her.

RULING

Emma “Eula” Mattie intentionally and repeatedly queued together alongside purchased accounts with tanked MMR in order to gain Rank Rating. This is a violation of Rule 7.2.9 of the VALORANT Champions Tour Global Competition Policy and Section 7.1 of the Riot Games Terms of Service. Eula is banned from any association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned competition for three months, beginning from the date of the latest violation to September 13th, 2022.

RELEVANT RULES

VALORANT Champions Tour Global Competition Policy
Section 7.2.9: Prohibited Matchmaking Ranking/Rating Boosting

“Behavior that circumvents the matchmaking rules of the VALORANT Competitive Matchmaking mode in order to increase the Matchmaking Ranking/Rating (MMR) of a Player’s account or Riot ID.”

Riot Games Terms of Service (ToS)
Section 7.1

The following are examples of behavior that warrant disciplinary measures: …14. Playing on another person’s account or otherwise engaging in activity intended to “boost” an account’s status or rank.