A crypto thrower is a player who intentionally loses a competitive online game to win a bet placed on a cryptocurrency gambling website. This practice is primarily observed in high-ranked games like Valorant, where the player sabotages their own team to guarantee a payout from an external bet.
What is a crypto thrower?
A crypto thrower is a player who deliberately loses or "throws" a competitive online match to profit from cryptocurrency bets. The term blends gaming slang, where "throwing" means intentionally losing, with "crypto," referring to cryptocurrency betting that happens outside the game itself. This practice is most commonly seen in high-ranked matches of games like Valorant, where the stakes are higher and streamers are more likely to be present. If you need to move funds to a betting platform, you can send crypto from robinhood to an external wallet first.
How does crypto throwing work?
Crypto throwers use a method called "queue sniping" to get into the same match as a high-profile streamer or professional player. Once inside, they sabotage the game from within. If the crypto thrower is on the streamer's team, they will intentionally play poorly to ensure the streamer loses, thereby winning their bet. If they are on the opposing team, they might place a winning bet on the streamer and then sabotage their own team's efforts. The entire scheme relies on betting on fixed outcomes to guarantee a profit, with the cryptocurrency gambling platform serving as the external betting venue.
The impact on competitive gaming
The issue significantly impacts the competitive integrity of the game and negatively affects the experience of streamers and other players. For streamers, having a crypto thrower on their team means their match is deliberately lost, ruining their content and ranking. For regular players in high-ranked matches, encountering a crypto thrower can derail hours of effort and make the ranked ladder feel unfair. The specific challenge is that crypto throwers are difficult to detect because their sabotage can look like poor performance, and they actively target high-profile matches where the payoff is largest.
Community response and proposed solutions
Prominent streamers, like Tarik, have discussed the problem and proposed solutions such as creating private leagues to avoid crypto throwers. The idea is that by restricting matchmaking to a trusted pool of players, streamers could eliminate the risk of queue snipers. However, as of early 2023, there had been no official response from Riot Games, the developer of Valorant, specifically addressing the "crypto throwing" issue, though they have previously addressed general disruptive behavior. This lack of official acknowledgment has left the community to police itself through discussions and private matchmaking ideas.
Is crypto throwing always real?
While widely reported as a real issue, one claim suggests that some instances of "crypto throwing" might have been part of a "massive troll" or fake. This adds a layer of complexity to identifying and addressing the problem, as it means not every suspicious loss in a streamer's game is necessarily a crypto thrower. Some players may have faked the behavior for attention or to troll the community, making it harder for developers and players to distinguish genuine threats from pranks.
