Valorant player apologizes for shooting body of dead opponent in pro match

A Valorant player has apologized after shooting the body of a dead opponent in a professional match in Japan.

Yuto ‘million’ Ueno, who plays for Japanese Challengers team Murash Gaming, took to Twitter after his team’s match Advance Stage against IGZIST to apologize for his action, which represents a violation of the tournament’s rules.

“I won’t shoot at corpses anymore because it seems that it’s against the rules of the VCJ tournament,” he wrote in a tweet that has been viewed over 4 million times. “I’m sorry.”

This is not the first time that players shooting the bodies of dead opponents has been a topic in professional Valorant.

In March 2021, then G2 Esports player Patryk ‘paTiTek’ Fabrowski revealed that teams were asked not to teabag or shoot bodies in their Valorant Champions Tour matches. “This behavior is not desired during the broadcast,” said an official from the company running the tournament.

“Shooting bodies” can be considered an act of taunting or disrespect. It has been used in shooter games since the earliest days of esports competition and online matches.

Murash Gaming, who came from the open qualifiers, lost the series 2-0 and dropped down to Group C’s lower bracket in the tournament. The top six teams will advance to Split 2 of the Challengers League, the second tier of Japanese Valorant.

Later this year, Japan will host its first international Valorant event, VCT Masters Tokyo. The tournament will be held between June 11 and 25 and feature ten teams from the Americas, EMEA, and Pacific leagues, as well as two Chinese representatives.