Why Ninja Really Confronted These Valorant Players
Cheating has become quite a problem in modern video games. From players hacking Red Dead Online to Fall Guys creating an entire island in the game just for cheaters, it's something that has unfortunately become a part of playing online for many gamers. One person who typically takes cheaters to task is Ninja, who recently did just that during a game of Valorant.
The whole thing can be seen in a clip of the stream shared on Ninja's Twitch channel. Ninja and his team were several rounds in when things started to seem suspicious. However, Ninja kept his cool until a particular kill during the match. The moment that set Ninja off, which can be seen at around 6 minutes and 38 seconds into the clip, is when Ninja suddenly got killed by a player named Reyna.
This player kept somehow landing headshots on Ninja and his teammates, even though the hits that were connecting seemed to be mostly bodyshots. Essentially, attacks that shouldn't have done a ton of damage were becoming one-shot kills. It also looked like this player had unnaturally good aim from Ninja's perspective. Though Ninja and his team won that match, he incredulously asked the chat, "She's hacking?"
He asked this a few more times, adjusting his headset in frustration. Despite his suspicions, Ninja continued on with the match. A few minutes later, the same thing happened, which prompted Ninja to announce, "That Reyna's cheating. There's no doubt in my mind ... there's no doubt in my mind, she's cheating."
Ninja quickly lodged a complaint against Reyna and one of their teammates, who he claimed was using similar cheats. According to a report from Dexerto, the accused cheaters have denied that they did anything out of the ordinary.
Ninja referenced the situation later on his Twitter account, writing, "I just played some of the most SUS/Blatant cheaters in Valorant in a long time and I straight dissected who the cheaters were ... had to be there."
While it hasn't been confirmed by Riot Games if these accused cheaters were indeed hacking, it seems as though most of Ninja's teammates and viewers agreed with his take. One of Ninja's followers said that they hoped the accused players received a ban or were otherwise voted out of the game. Another fan said that they weren't sure if the players in question were hacking, but they ultimately agreed that the cheating was "blatant." Others thought that only some of the accused players were cheating, but not all of them.
At least a few followers felt like Ninja was overreacting in this case. One person said that Ninja may have "called it wrong" and that the accused gamers weren't actually doing anything wrong.
For the most part, people were entertained by the entire debacle. Twitch streamer Swifty compared Ninja's cheat-detection skills to another video game. Swifty humorously tweeted, "Lmfao @Ninja catching cheaters on Valorant like he's playing Among Us." Swifty was referring to Among Us, the party game in which players have to figure out who among their crew is an imposter. It's a pretty apt description, especially since Ninja was very quickly able to point out how and why he thought the players were exploiting the game in Valorant.
Ninja has had a pretty eventful month, even before all of the cheating drama went down. After months of teasing his fans, Ninja officially announced last week that he would be returning to stream on Twitch full time. His first stream back on the platform occurred on the afternoon of Sept. 10. Since he's been back, Ninja has played a wide variety of games, including Valorant, Fortnite, and Among Us. Longtime fans have been very excited for his return, so hopefully things are a little less dramatic from here on out.
However, it should also be noted that this isn't the first time Ninja has gotten frustrated with cheaters while streaming. In fact, it seems to be one of his biggest pet peeves. Back in April, Ninja got so fed up with cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone that he told his teammates on the stream that he couldn't wait for Valorant to go live. Now that Valorant is widely available, it seems like Ninja is running into the same old issues.
Luckily for Ninja, Riot Games has been working hard on curbing the rampant cheating in Valorant. The company has offered a $100,000 bounty to any hackers who can manage to find exploits in Riot's anti-cheat software. Hopefully this incentive will continue to help Riot Games to tighten Valorant's security and anti-cheat measures. If not, Ninja may end up deciding to move on to another game.