Aurora Gaming’s Valorant roster has secured a spot in the VCT Kickoff Playoff Qualifiers after being restored to the competition after an opposing team was found to have cheated.
Aurora’s ambitious roster, featuring VCT veterans Nikita ‘derke’ Sirmitev, Ričardas ‘Boo’ Lukaševičius, and Nikita ‘trexx’ Cherednichenko, had seemingly fallen in the Open Qualifier before Riot Games intervened.
Aurora were restored to the qualifier after initial elimination by UK Valorant roster Team BONK, who were later found to have used cheating software.
Valorant BONK controversy explained
BONK initially defeated Aurora 2-1 in their Round of 32 Best of 3. The original scoreline was 13-9 (Sunset), 8-13 (Lotus), and 15-13 (Bind) as BONK seemingly pulled off the most notable upset of the Open Qualifier.
BONK continued their run, defeating Project 100K in the Round of 16 before beating ycatble 2-0 in the quarter-finals. As a result, the roster was only two wins from making the Qualifiers Playoffs.
However, suspicion surrounding the results quickly spread throughout the community, with clips on social media pointing to unusual gameplay. BONK’s gameplay was reported to Riot Games through official tournament Discords, triggering an investigation into the team’s gameplay.
Following the investigation, Riot posted a lengthy statement outlining their findings, which states, “Further investigation by our team confirmed that a participant on Team BONK was using unauthorised cheating software. As a result, Team BONK has been disqualified from VCT EMEA Kickoff Europe Qualifier 1.
“All players and other registered team participants have been provisionally suspended from Riot-sanctioned competitions while we complete our investigation into individual involvement.”
While the ultimate disciplinary measures are yet to be determined, the findings that the roster used cheating software immediately led to the roster’s disqualification, restoring Aurora, Project 100K, and YCATBLE to the bracket.
Aurora defeated both rosters in quick succession to make it out of the Open Qualifier and into the VCT EMEA Kickoff Qualifier Playoffs, which will determine the final two EU rosters to make the VCT 2027 EMEA Kickoff tournament.
Aurora will play Pixel Lumina in the event’s semi-final before a potential Grand Final versus the winners of XXxMasterProMegaTeamxXx and F9 EICAR, which will determine seeding for the VCT EMEA Kickoff Qualifier Playoffs.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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