Riot suspends pro Valorant team for fielding 13-year-old player

Riot Games has released a ruling on the APAC Game Changers team Dominatus Jade, suspending the organization and its roster for fielding a 13-year-old player.

Riot Games released a ruling on June 13 for the APAC organization Dominatus. The org’s Valorant Game Changers squad, Dominatus Jade, which has competed in a smattering of tournaments in Asia including the APAC Game Changers Open series, has been suspended for fielding a 13-year-old player.

In the ruling, Riot said the tournament operator for the GC event, FSL, was told that one of Dominatus Jade’s players was under the age of 16. This violated Riot’s current ruleset as the developer only allows players over the age of 16 to compete in sanctioned tournaments.

After an investigation into the matter, the players on Dominatus were asked to give FSL identification to verify they were all over the age of 16. One player, ‘spyxii,’ could not provide any documentation and later admitted to being 13 years old, according to Riot.

Riot suspends Valorant team and players over rule violation

Due to the rule violation, Riot has suspended the entire Valorant team and Dominatus as a whole. Every player that competed in the Game Changers tournament with spyxii, which includes ‘Sinoo,’ ‘Bella,’ ‘Chimochi,’ and ‘Jean,’ has been suspended for seven months. spyxii herself has not been formally suspended, but will instead be ineligible to play in any Riot-sponsored Valorant events until they reach 16 years old.

Dominatus itself has also been suspended from Game Changers events for seven months, until October 13, 2023. The organization’s Challengers Indonesia team is also now on probation from Riot, which means any other rule violations will “result in escalated penalties going forward.”

The team has since disbanded following the conclusion of Game Changers APAC Open I on March 12, according to Valo2asia.