Riot Games has banned Turkish VALORANT pro Yasin “Nisay” Heavens from official matches for a period of 12 months. In addition, Riot removed him from the EU Radiant Top 500 and reduced his competitive rank to Immortal. These disciplinary actions were instituted after Riot determined that Nisay used third-party software to cheat while competing on the public VALORANT competitive ladder.

At the time of his banning, Nisay was ranked #1 on the EU VALORANT ladder and played for the Beşiktaş Esports VALORANT roster. During his time with the organization, he played in the VALORANT First Strike Turkey event and helped his team reach the quarterfinals. Following Riot’s disciplinary actions on Thursday, Beşiktaş Esports terminated their contract with Nisay. 

In a Twitlonger released on Thursday, Nisay denied the allegations that he used third-party software to cheat and called for Riot to show him the evidence they used to convict him.

“I personally think I am being wronged, but I cannot do anything against a company like Riot," Nissay explained. "If they had actually detected that I was cheating, a permanent ban would have been applied. Anyone who is sane knows, someone who has cheated will not be banned for 12 months. First Strike Riot in Turkey officially examined me and they could not find anything."

Nisay is not the only professional VALORANT player punished by Riot for cheating this week. Nisay's ban comes only two days after Riot banned Indian pro VALORANT player Abhay "Xhade" Urkude, after he admitted to using wallhacks on a livestream. Unlike Nisay, however, Xhade's account was permanently suspended.

These cases are a blow to VALORANT's lauded cheat detection system. When VALORANT was released, Riot emphasized how effective the Riot Vanguard anti-cheat would be but the system has fallen well short of Riot's promises, despite Vanguard having unprecedented kernel level access to player machines.