After “turning VALORANT into an RPG” for a YouTube series and receiving backlash for smurfing and disrupting ranked games, popular content creator Keeoh is responding to the outcry and adjusting the format somewhat.
Keeoh posted the first episode of his “I Turned Valorant into an RPG Game” series to his YouTube channel on Sept. 8, where he challenged himself to climb through all the ranks while being limited in which weapons he could use. For example, in Iron, he was only allowed to use a knife and no gun. He was only allowed to rank up from Iron if he won three games in a row going knife-only.
While this may sound like a fun challenge, a lot of other players pointed out one huge issue with it—smurfing. Keeoh is Radiant—the highest rank in the game—meaning the challenge forced him to go undercover in ranks far lower than his own against players way beneath his skill level. This was seen as problematic for the rest of the nine players in the lobby, who might not appreciate having someone only using a knife in their match.
It not only affects the players’ rank rating (RR) in competitive but also may come off as ridiculing anyone stuck in lower ranks. After receiving feedback on his series regarding the smurfing, Keeoh put out a Sept. 11 Reddit statement on how he’ll approach things moving forward.
Rather than continuing to smurf in ranked games, he will instead use custom games with fans who volunteer to join in on the project. In this way, he won’t be negatively impacting any player’s rank or experience in competitive.
“Everyone that joins in knows what they are signing up for,” the content creator said, and while he didn’t specifically apologize for his actions, fans are happy he is committing to continuing the entertaining series without negatively impacting players’ experience. “The only loser in this is me for having to complete this horribly masochistic challenge,” Keeoh concluded.
Published: Sep 11, 2023 11:43 pm