T1 suspends coach David Denis after TSM incident

After the rule violation in the match against TSM, T1 has now announced that Valorant coach David Denis has been suspended for the upcoming VCT Qualifier. The team was supported by all sides and as it seems the players have nothing to do with the incident.

On January 30, there was an incident with T1 and TSM at the VCT Qualifier when Coach Denis disregarded the rules and communicated with his team during the match to help them. As a result, the match was stopped and the win went to TSM, while T1 received a warning.

David Denis suspended for the time being

Any communication with players during matches is a violation of the VCT rulebook, however, the coach typed something into a chat and communicated with his charges that way. Apparently, he was trying to help them win that way. However, the coach has been with T1 for a year and knows the rules very well by now, which means there was no question of ignorance.

T1 issued a statement about this, saying that they and Riot conducted a “thorough review of the actions that took place during the qualifying tournament.” They also said that they deeply regret the incident and that the coach has been suspended for the time being.

David Denis commented on the situation, “The communication logs show that all communication I had with players was between rounds or with a player who had already been eliminated. This communication consisted of encouraging/supportive statements and general exhortations. One exception was when I wrote, ‘Help the Sewer.’ There is no excuse for that.”

But he also said, “I didn’t watch the livestream during the game and didn’t share any information with the players that they didn’t already have.”

Shortly after, T1 CEO Joe Marsh also spoke out, praising how Riot Games had handled it afterward. “From Riot’s perspective, it was completely fair to penalize us,” Marsh said. “Would we have won? Yeah, probably so, but I think that’s why they fined us so much, because we were on the verge of qualifying for the event and lost.”

Players not involved

Joe Marsh also commented on speculation that the players were involved: “The fact that Riot cleared us should show everyone that the players did nothing wrong in this case. T1 decided to punish David and suspend him for this weekend’s event, partly because we wanted to show that we would have won anyway.”

Until David Denis’ suspension is reinstated, assistant coach Cody “Stunner” MacLeod will fill in for him. T1 was welcomed with open arms by the fans after the loss to TSM and Marsh thanked the fans for standing by their team so faithfully, “We appreciate you guys sticking by us. I know it’s not easy to be a fan when you’re in the line of fire right now, but I just appreciate that they stood up for the team and the players.”