The hunger to reach the top in any sport is always a good competitive feeling to have, as long as you choose the right path. While popular Valorant player Abhay Urkude, better known as his online name ‘Xhade’ chose the other way to reach Radiant in the Valorant game. Xhade received a permanent ban notice on his Valorant ID for using 3rd party apps as an unfair advantage for himself. He had appealed against the ban after receiving it, but Xhade has now admitted to cheating on a YouTube Live Stream.
Xhade – another Forsaken that the Indian Gaming Community has witnessed
Everyone knows about Nikhil ‘Forsaken’ Kumawat for cheating at an international LAN CSGO tournament in China, while representing his country. While this move caused a lot of backlash for the reputation of India in Esports globally, the IGC was recovering well from it with better competitive teams like Entity Gaming and others. And here comes Xhade, who has admitted to cheating in Valorant, for reaching Radiant in ranked games.
Xhade had received a permanent ban notice for using 3rd-party apps as an unfair advantage. He immediately appealed against it and pleaded innocent for not hacking and cheating. Xhade, who is a member of the Paratroops roster of Valorant, is a very popular public figure when it comes to the game. When he appealed against the ban to Riot Games, the maker of Valorant, his teammates including the IGL of the Paratroops roster – ‘Binks69’ who is also a creator for 8bit also supported him.
Being an IGL, Binks69 (Mithul Nayak) is a very calm person who leads his team pretty well and is a great entertainer too. He supported his teammate Xhade and asked Riot Games to look into this matter, as Xhade’s career could be harmed due to this ban. When Xhade saw his teammates, especially his IGL Binks69 in support of him, guilt started to swallow him as he had actually cheated in the game.
Xhade took it to Binks69’s YouTube Live Stream, where he came on Discord to confess about cheating in only three games to reach radiant. Xhade said that he was annoyed by facing cheaters, and hence used only walk hacks, and not aim-assist to get an advantage over his opponents. On hearing this, the feelings and emotions of Binks69 were hurt, and it can be seen on the facecam of his live stream. Not only he was sad as his teammate had cheated, what annoyed him more is the fact that Xhade did not inform his teammates when Binks69 and others were appealing against the ban on Xhade, even though he was guilty.
Binks69 was furious, and anyone in his position would be after what Xhade had done. He tried to explain how he himself had done so much hard work to reach radiant, and it took him months to achieve it. Xhade pleaded guilty and apologized to his team and all the live viewers for his shameful act. He has even deleted his YouTube channel after this.
Why is Xhade’s ban such a big deal?
In any Esport, you will come across cheaters who will use all sorts of unfair ways, and harming the competitive environment. That’s not something we can stop. But Xhade being such a popular public figure, where people watched him for his gameplay, got inspired from him, saw him as an idol whom they can learn from, all his good reputation was shattered. He is no longer seen as an innocent or honest player. The impact that he will have on the audience can be adverse for the entire Indian Gaming Community, as they will think if their idol is cheating to reach certain ranks, we should do it too.
What Xhade did, is wrong. This will also harm the reputation of Indian Gamers globally as International Organizations looking for players and content creators from India will have a negative mindset towards India as a market. Influencers need to realize how crucial they are for not just their own reputation but for the entire country. Xhade’s Valorant career is now on its edge, but the harm caused by him to the IGC is something that will remain in the talks for a while.
