Tarik’s VALORANT custom games praised amid ranked griefing turmoil

Most professional VALORANT players have been enjoying 10-man matches compared to ranked play recently. 

Following weeks of complaints regarding ranked play by professional players, Sentinels streamer and content creator Tarik Celik stepped in to create a 10-man server where pros are matched up against each other in custom games. 

The 10-man games were praised by players such as Version1 star Ava “florescent” and featured several different matches with players including Tarik, Austin “crashies” Roberts, Benita Novshadian, and Quan “dicey” Tran, to name a few. 

The community reaction has been largely positive, too. 

The 10-man matches were set up as a response to the rampant griefing in VALORANT ranked matches. Essentially, players would bet on their favorite streamers’ matches using cryptocurrency and request one of the players to throw the match. 

These griefers were typically boosted to high Elo to play alongside some of the popular content creators and professional players who typically stream their ranked matches. These matches would then be used by cryptocurrency betting websites to allow users to place bets in real time. 

Tarik was one of the main targets of the griefers since he has one of the largest followings in the VALORANT scene. As a result, Tarik proposed to set up his own league where professional players could play against each other if they met certain criteria. 

Tarik teased the idea of starting these pro 10s earlier this month and several pros wanted to join the custom matches. As a result, Tarik said that players on teams that partnered with Riot Games for the international league or are contracted to a tier-one organization would be granted a direct invitation to the matches. Otherwise, players have to apply to join and meet several different criteria, including being contracted to a team in VALORANT for at least six months.