Riot Games suspends 4 Game Changers players

Riot Games has suspended four professional Valorant Game Changers players for a variety of offenses, including cheating, falsifying gender identity, and sharing discriminator and racist memes.

Four professional Game Changers players have received harsh punishment as a result of two distinct competition rulings that Riot Games issued regarding serious instances of false identification and cheating. The players who have been penalized by the Valorant creator are Megan “LemonOreo” Lai, Caroline “carosmacks,” Jennifer “nabiichu,” and Alex “Dsylexic” Luong.

Dsylexic and Nabiichu are handed extended suspensions for several offenses

According to Riot’s finding, the event happened on October 8, 2022, when Dsylexic and nabiichu were playing for EQ Cerise against CLG Red in a VCT Game Changers official competition. During the match, Riot’s Anti-Cheat Team detected “multiple instances” of Dsylexic using the prohibited third-party program. 

After additional investigation, Riot Games discovered that nabiichu, a player who was an EQ Cerise member at the time of the incident, was approached by Dyslexic, whose identity is he/him. Dyslexic enrolled as non-binary so that he could play with EQ against CLG Red because as the team was allowed to field a substitute. Nabiichu backed Dsylexic’s plan as they convinced the team and authorities that Dsylexic had a non-binary gender identity.

As a result of the incidents, VCT Game Changers officially disqualified the whole roster of EQ Cerise since it clearly violated the VCT Global Competition Policy. Dyslexic admitted his mistakes on October 10, shortly after the team was disqualified. He apologized for acting unethically and admitted that he had misled the tournament official about his self-identification as non-binary.

However, Riot has already put strict bans in place to ensure that any players—regardless of gender—who violate the rules will be held accountable. According to Riot’s ruling, Nabiichu is prohibited from association or affiliation with a team in a Riot-sanctioned competition for five years, while Dyslexic is prohibited from such activity for eight years. 

Carosmacks and LemonOreo face a one-year suspension

In a different ruling, Game Changers players Caroline “carosmacks” Peterson and Megan “LemonOreo” Lai have been banned from competing in Riot-sanctioned events for one year after the pair sent a discriminatory meme in a Discord channel on October 2022.  

According to the competitive decision, both carosmacks and LemonOreo uploaded racist and discriminatory memes to a Discord server on October 3. The screenshots of the allegedly offending memes were submitted to Riot personnel for review. Following the evaluation, Riot gave both players the chance to defend themselves, but it seems they were unable to do so, and as a result, they will both be subject to a rigorous one-year ban.

Header: Riot Games