The professional league ESL announced regarding Counter-Strike Global Offensive that it is imposing harsh penalties on 3 coaches from the professional teams Hard Legion, Heroic, and MIRB. The CS:GO coaches exploited a bug to cheat. The teams will be disqualified and must return the prize money. The coaches will be banned, with the worst cheat for 2 years. He was also fired by his team.
What did the coaches do? According to ESL, they took a “combination of various steps” and were able to exploit a bug that allowed them to access information they were not supposed to have. They then relayed this information to their players.
It is said that the coaches were able to gain a “Free Camera” perspective by exploiting the bug, gaining insight into the movements of the opponent: an insight they were not allowed to have.
ESL does not elaborate further on the bug. However, as an esports referee explains on Twitter, the coaches were able to move freely on the map and adjust the camera angle as they wished. Such information clearly distorts the competition.
ESL states that they have closely examined the matches and secured confirmation from the CS:GO developer Valve to validate their findings: The 3 coaches exploited the bug.
ESL emphasizes that it is important to state that other coaches also discovered this bug. However, they did not exploit it.
Coaches banned for up to 2 years
Here are the bugs that occurred:
- Alexsander “MechanoGun” Bogatiryev from Hard Legion reportedly exploited the bug on 6 maps in 3 matches – at the ESL One Road to Rio
- Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen from Heroic reportedly exploited the bug in 10 rounds on 1 map – at DreamHack Masters Spring
- Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia (MIBR) reportedly exploited the bug on one map in one round – at the ESL One Road to Trio
These are the penalties:
- “MechanoGun” will receive a ban of two years
- “HUNDEN” receives a ban of one year
- “dead” will be banned for 6 months
During this time, they are not allowed to participate as coaches or players in ESL competitions.
Furthermore, the teams of the coaches will be retroactively disqualified and must return their earned prize money; the points will also be deducted.
Teams react differently: With termination, suspension, investigation
So teams are reacting: Reactions vary:
- MIBR has immediately suspended their coach “dead” while investigating the case.
- Heroic has announced they will look into the case more closely. They will keep fans updated on how the investigation is proceeding (via heroic.gg)
- Hard Legion has immediately fired their coach.
Hard Legion mentions that their players ignored the fact that the information provided by their coach turned out to be “extremely accurate”.
However, they state that they have no reason to suspect that the players knew the source of the coach’s information. Therefore, they plan no penalties against their own players.
CS:GO is likely one of the games that is inextricably linked with cheating. Even in professional sports, problems frequently arise. In May, cheaters even managed to win a tournament in CS:GO, but their joy was short-lived.
Ultimately, their misconduct caught up with them:
Cheaters were discovered at the CS:GO tournament only after they had won
The title image comes from the Twitter account of MIBR. It shows their now suspended coach “dead” in the background.
