Killjoy Turret Bug forces FPX and XSET to replay last round at 3AM

Killjoy’s turret bug caused significant drama yesterday night during the lower bracket match between  Fun Plus Phoenix and XSET. FPX maintained their composure and defeated the North American squad 2-1 despite all the drama and the delay.

Both teams were on the verge of elimination yesterday as XSET faced FPX in a best-of-three series in the lower bracket. A loss would eliminate the team from Valorant Champions 2022. As it turned out, the match ended up being both the closest contested and most controversial in the playoffs thus far.

After a close match between FPX and XSET, the best of three series went down to the final and decisive map Ascent with a tied score of 1-1.  With FPX leading the game 12-11, XSET simply needed to win the following round to send it into overtime. After killing every member of the North American team in round 24, FPX was able to defuse the spike, winning the third map without overtime. In a shocking turn of events, tournament organizers revealed that Jordan “AYRIN” He’s Killjoy turret experienced a glitch at Ascent, necessitating the replay of the map’s last round roughly an hour after the game had completed.

Killjoy’s turret bug saga explained

On Map 3 Ascent’s 24th round, XSET placed the spike on A site next to the generator. The post-plant statistics supported XSET since it had three members that were still alive while FPX only had two. Both FPX members were stationed at A Garden, where XSET Rory “dephh” Jackson was keeping an eye on them. However, FPX’s ANGE1 quickly moved within the Killjoy turret’s line of sight before quickly moving back out of it, igniting the turret’s fire.

The turret, however, instead of firing in the direction of ANGE1, reset back to the place it had been aiming at before it noticed ANGE1, and then started firing toward the heaven section of the A site as opposed to the entryway where the FPX players were situated. As a result, dephh turned away from Garden and watched Rafters, and using this gap, FPX members pushed in and collected all the kills. They defused the spike and won the game 13-11. According to the VCT coordinators, Killjoy’s turret bug caused distraction among XSET players, and the last round must be replayed.

With a score of 12-11, the game was restarted with the same guns as the round that had the glitch.  The XSET team made good use of this opportunity and won the round, pushing the match into overtime. As they attempted to score the deciding point in overtime, the two teams once more exchanged punches. By exerting more effort, FPX was able to defeat XSET in round 30 and win the map 16–14. Even though the game went much longer than anticipated, FPX ultimately prevailed in the series with the same initial score of 2-1. With this victory, FPX advances to the next round where they will compete against DRX to determine who will advance to the lower bracket finals and have a chance to compete in the Grand Finals of Valorant Champions 2022.

Riot faces backlash on the decision 

The decision to replay the round has drawn criticism from numerous former and present professional players, coaches, members of the media, and fans who point out that Killjoy’s turret has regularly acted in this manner in the past. Some professionals also said that replaying the round would create a bad precedent that would harm both the present VCT Champions tournament and future competitions. According to FPX’s star player Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov, the round shouldn’t have been replayed because it undermined the integrity of the competition.

Many fans, especially FPX fans started blaming  XSET for the decision, making insulting and occasionally aggressive statements toward XSET players on Twitter. However, XSET’s coach Don “SyykoNT” Mui made it clear in the post-game press conference that it was not their decision to replay the last round of the match.

 

Header: Lance Skundrich/Riot Games