In September, Valorant has been supporting Twitch’s “SUBtember” campaign by gifting subscriptions to channels, causing some frustration for Valorant esports fans who want more money invested into the scene. Now, Valorant’s Head of Esports has hit back at the criticism, claiming people have got the wrong end of the stick.

Starting on September 26, 2025, Twitch decided to cap off SUBtember with a “Bonus Gift Sub finale.” For every five gift subs purchased for a channel, Valorant added one bonus gift sub in celebration of Valorant Champions Paris.

Valorant Gifting Kai Cenat Twitch Subs

On September 28, several fans noted that the Valorant channel had gifted around 60,000 subscriptions to Kai Cenat, who reached an astronomical 1 million subscriber count by the end of his September subathon, “Mafiathon 3.”

People were quick to say that the money used on those subscriptions could instead have been put towards Tier 2 prize pools, for example, calculating that the gifted subs would amount to approximately $360,000.

Others suggested that the gift subs should have instead been given to smaller Valorant streamers, though it is worth pointing out that the partnership doesn’t discriminate based on streamer size: at its core, if any streamer was gifted five subscriptions, Valorant would add another, regardless of the channel.

Head of Esports Responds to Fan Fury

Valorant’s Global Head of Esports, Leo Faria, responded to complaints, confirming that neither Valorant nor Riot are paying for the gifted subs, but instead it’s Twitch itself gifting the subscriptions.

Yes that’s correct, we’re sponsoring the event, not gifting the subs

— Leo Faria (@lhfaria) September 28, 2025

He went on to add that “I understand it may not feel that way, but we do invest much more than that in Challengers every year. It takes several millions of dollars to run all these Challengers leagues and Ascension tournaments around the world.

He concluded with something to get fans excited too, saying: “That said, we’ve been working for a long time to improve the ecosystem for non-partner teams in the VCT and are getting close to shipping some exciting changes.”

Like I said we did not donate $300,000 in subs. Furthermore, I understand it may not feel that way, but we do invest much more than that in Challengers every year. It takes several millions of dollars to run all these Challengers leagues and Ascension tournaments around the…

— Leo Faria (@lhfaria) September 29, 2025

Valorant Champions Paris has been ongoing throughout this activation, with Finals Weekend scheduled for October 3-5.