Standard Valorant streamer and former skilled participant Shahzeeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan obtained threatening textual content messages after talking out in opposition to alleged betting exercise tied to his ranked matches.
In a collection of tweets, ShahZaM alleged that playing on high-level Valorant ranked video games has persevered for years and that people are intentionally manipulating the result of matches by shopping for accounts to throw video games. In keeping with ShahZaM, repeated experiences to Riot Video games have gone unaddressed.
“We’ve been coping with our ranked video games on betting web sites for a pair years now, telling Riot about it, they usually’ve continued to not do something about it till it will get up to now. Folks purchase accounts and get into our video games to throw for these bets,” he posted on X.
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ShahZam threatened with violence by alleged Valorant gamblers
ShahZaM mentioned he acknowledged that considered one of his video games was being guess on and mentioned the state of affairs stay on stream. Shortly afterward, he obtained a collection of threatening textual content messages. One message learn:“Hey there shahzam. If you don’t begin throwing this recreation I’ll open loans in your identify. Your social is [blanked out].”
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One other message acknowledged: “If you don’t hearken to me and cease speaking in your stream. There can be 4 males with AR-15s at your door. We’re outdoors watching you.”
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The sender hoped to intimidate ShahZaM’s by claiming to have his private data and with threats of lethal violence. ShahZaM shared the texts publicly however didn’t affirm whether or not he has contacted legislation enforcement or Riot Video games’ safety workforce.
The incident has renewed considerations throughout the Valorant neighborhood relating to the safety of high-profile gamers and the continued presence of third-party playing operations linked to stay ranked matches. Riot Video games has not but issued a public response.
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ShahZaM is a veteran of the skilled Valorant scene and repeatedly streams ranked video games to 1000’s of viewers. The threats comply with considerations from streamers {and professional} gamers concerning the affect of account boosting, match-fixing, and betting-related interference in high-ELO video games and even tier 2 skilled matches.
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