Aurora, Project 100K and ycatble get their matches replayed after Riot confirmed that a BONK participant was using cheating software.
Riot Games has disqualified BONK from VCT EMEA Kickoff Europe Qualifier 1 after an investigation confirmed that a participant on the team was using unauthorised cheating software. The British team had won six series in a row and booked a place in the qualifier playoffs.
VALORANT Esports EMEA published the decision as a “Competition Update” on X on Sunday afternoon. Riot did not say which player was involved. Every player and registered team member is suspended for now, and the final sanctions will be decided person by person.
As part of this process suspicious behavior involving Team BONK in the VCT EMEA Kickoff Europe Qualifier 1 was reported. 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.
Who plays for BONK
BONK have been a fixture of the European Tier 2 scene. The lineup in the qualifier:
Yaquob “Corsa” Hanif- Waddles
Aleks “Kaaru” Grudniewski- kubfu
- Max “Deqadz” Vinall
Riot has not named any of them, and the suspensions are interim measures. Riot wrote that “any final sanctions will be determined based on the findings for each individual.”
A run that put Aurora out
BONK’s results in the qualifier were all 2-0 until they met Aurora Gaming in the Round of 32. They beat a team with Derke, Boo and trexx 2-1, taking the decider 15-13 in overtime on Bind.
| Round | Opponent | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round of 256 | Educated Idiots | 2-0 | 5 November |
| Round of 128 | Mörköjengi | 2-0 | 5 November |
| Round of 64 | THE ONE | 2-0 | 6 November |
| Round of 32 | Aurora Gaming | 2-1 (now voided) | 6 November |
| Round of 16 | Project 100K | won (now voided) | 7 November |
| Quarter-final | ycatble | won (now voided) | 7 November |
The quarter-final win would have sent BONK into a semi-final against Pixel Lumina. Instead, Riot is replaying the two rounds that followed the Aurora series. Aurora Gaming met Project 100K in a new Round of 16 match from , and the winner faces ycatble at around for the last playoff place from Qualifier 1. The semi-finals and the grand final move to Tuesday, starting .
Riot stressed that this is not a template for later cases:
Replaying tournament matches is an exceptional measure and will not always be possible. In this instance, we believe it offers the fairest outcome for the affected teams and helps preserve competitive integrity. This decision reflects the specific circumstances of this case and does not establish a precedent for how future incidents will be handled.
Leo Faria, Riot’s global head of Valorant esports, quoted the announcement with a warning: “If you’re involved, don’t expect a slap on the wrist.”
Players say they flagged BONK long ago
Several players from the scene say they raised concerns about BONK before this qualifier. Pixel Lumina’s nataNk lost to BONK 2-1 in the semi-finals of EVC: The Surge 14 in October, and posted a screenshot of a message he says he sent to Riot anti-cheat analyst GamerDoc on 11 October. “I reported them to GamerDoc 1month ago but didn’t take me seriously maybe, or didn’t see the message,” he wrote.
VqZ went further back. He reposted his own tweet from November 2025, written in French during Red Bull Home Ground, where BONK lost both of their matches after coming through the EMEA qualifier. In it he said the team looked unbeatable online but were shut down on LAN, and that this raised questions. In a reply to nataNk on Sunday, he wrote: “It’s been over a year, since the Red Bull Homeground Qualifier 2025, a gdoc was made and nobody was taken seriously…”
d3nZ of ycatble, the team BONK beat in the quarter-final, wrote that his team and Aurora had raised the issue after Saturday’s match. These are claims from rival players. Riot’s statement covers only the Kickoff qualifier and only one participant.
