Pros heading to VALORANT Champions in Shanghai have reportedly been handed a short list of things they aren’t allowed to do inside the game.
According to a tournament conduct notice, players must not shoot the bodies of eliminated opponents, shoot player pucks, teabag, or take part in “other inappropriate in-game conduct” for the duration of the event.
Player pucks are the disc markers that replace fallen character models when a player turns corpses off in their settings. Most pros use them because they’re less distracting. Naming pucks in the notice closes the obvious loophole of shooting the marker instead of the model.
Teabagging is the classic crouch spam over a dead body, a taunt as old as online shooters.
When in Rome
Plenty of people in the scene say these standards aren’t new at all. Similar in-game conduct expectations have long been associated with VCT China, and the notice reads to many like existing local rules being spelled out for visiting teams. Whether it’s a new global policy, a Champions-only rule, or a regional standard applied to an international event hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Reaction has been mixed. Some fans argue body shooting after a huge round is exactly what makes crowds erupt and clips travel, and that Champions will feel flatter without it. Others see it as a reasonable rule to follow while playing in a region where domestic teams already live under it.
Others have connected the notice to past cases where in-game taunting spilled over into heavy online abuse aimed at players. No official reason for the instruction has been given.
