Valorant pro ‘Malibu’ permabanned from all Riot-sanctioned tournaments

During the official Valorant Game Changers event, former pro-Madelyn “Malibu” Campos received a permanent ban. During the match against Complexity GX3, the match was halted as Malibu was handed a ban by the anti-cheat.

This led to the termination of the game between Noot Noot and Complexity GX3, and further inquiry by Riot Games. After investigation, Riot Games ruled Malibu had indeed breached their Terms of Service (ToS).

Check out the post:

A competitive ruling has been issued against Madelyn ‘Malibu’ Campos and James ‘Summertime’ Edwards.

Read the full ruling:

— VALORANT Esports NA (@valesports_na) January 16, 2024

Why was Malibu banned?

In its ruling, Riot found that the identification submitted by Malibu was fake. She was also using an alternate account to compete, as her original account and PC had received a hardware ban in the past due to cheating.

“Madelyn was aware of her standing and intentionally circumvented the hardware ban by participating in the tournament on a new computer and using another player’s account. As a result, Madelyn was handed a permanent ban from any association or affiliation with a team in any Riot-sanctioned competition,” the ruling said.

To make this possible, another player, James “Summertime” Edwards, helped Malibu to create fake information and an AI-generated portrait. This was submitted to AnyKey, a program that Riot uses for verification.

Due to his actions, Summertime was also punished with a one-year ban on all Riot-sanctioned competitions for one year. Malibu’s punishment however was more severe, with a permanent ban.

The investigation also ruled that there was no involvement from her team members or even knowledge of the matter. The report did not mention any cheating during the tournament. As such, no actions were taken against the team. However, they have now disbanded.