Valorant pro takej suspended for three months for boosting

Shogo ‘takej’ Takemori, who plays for Japanese team ZETA DIVISION, has been handed a three-month suspension by the organization after he was found to have boosted another player’s account. 

ZETA DIVISION announced on October 1 via their official website that takej had been suspended without pay for a period of three months following an investigation launched on September 29.

According to the statement, takej was found to have used a smurf Valorant account owned by Takaaki Natsushiro, a content creator for ZETA DIVISION, to boost an account belonging to an undisclosed acquaintance.

Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

ZETA DIVISION were one of the two Japanese teams that attended the VCT Stage 3 Masters

ZETA DIVISION explained the reason for the decision was their goal of being a “gaming organization that leads the gaming culture.”

“For this reason, we prohibit not only cheating and violating the terms of use of the game, but also any kind of behavior that undermines fairness and lacks morality in game play, in both player and streamer contracts,” ZETA DIVISION noted.

Takej’s suspension

ZETA DIVISION stated that takej had shown remorse for his actions and that he was encouraged by Natsushiro to play on the smurf account.

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However, given his status as a professional player, the organization believe that takej has “an important responsibility to lead the competitive scene and ensure fairness” and that his actions had to be dealt with “severely”.

Besides not receiving his salary or taking part in any activity as a player for the next three months, takej has been ordered to refrain from posting on social media websites for the duration of his suspension.

ZETA DIVISION also verified that takej had tweeted in the past about boosting CS:GO accounts, using an alt account on the social networking website. But since the game’s matchmaking allows for players of different ranks to queue together, the Japanese organization ruled that the behavior “is not subject to punishment”, though they ordered the player to delete the Twitter account in question.

Star player for ZETA DIVISION

takej played at the highest level in CS:GO for several years before transitioning to Valorant in March 2020 together with the rest of his team, who formed Absolute JUPITER.

In August 2021, just one month after JUPITER rebranded to ZETA DIVISION, the team won the VCT Japan Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs to qualify for their first international event, the VCT Stage 3 Masters. In Berlin, the team finished bottom of their group following defeats to KRU Esports and Vivo Keyd.

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ZETA DIVISION announced on September 24 that the team would skip the APAC Last Chance Qualifier for Valorant Champions to focus on their rebuilding efforts for 2022. It appears as though takej will not be missing any games as the team will return to action only next year.