Top-ranked Valorant pro banned for cheating, tells Riot to prove it

Yasin “Nisay” Gök
(Image credit: Yasin “Nisay” Gök on Twitch)

Riot has handed down a 12-month ban to Valorant pro player and top EU Ranked player Yasin “Nisay” Gök for cheating in a Ranked match. The official Valorant esports account for Turkey announced the ban earlier today, citing an official investigation by Riot Games into the player.

As a result, Gök has also been dropped by his team Beşiktaş Esports and his contract has been terminated. In a TwitLonger response (which we translated from Turkish using Google Translate), Gök called on Riot Games to provide evidence of the third-party software that proves he cheated.

"I personally think I am being wronged, but I cannot do anything against a company like Riot," Gök said. "I request Riot to show me proof of the 3rd party software they detected and that it is cheating."

Neither Riot or the official Turkey account has provided details of Gök's offenses. Curiously, Gök claims that the offending account hasn't been banned from normal play as would usually be the case when Valorant's Vanguard anti-cheat software catches a cheater.

Unfortunately, this is hardly the first time Valorant's pro scene has been subject to official discipline. Just a few weeks ago, Spanish esports team Movistar Riders dropped Rui "rapaztriste" Fonseca for using cheats during a qualifier. Overall, Valorant's cheat policing still seems better than other popular shooters, possibly thanks to Vanguard's sophistication as a kernel-level driver that keeps running when you're not playing. The comparably invasive anti-cheat software caused a bit of a stir around the time of Valorant's launch last year.

Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.