In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), the winners of a Finnish tournament organized by Red Bull have now been banned. The problem: An update had put the cheat detection out of action and it was only after the cheaters’ victory that it became known that they were using aim assist.
This is the tournament: Red Bull is currently organizing a CS:GO tournament for duos. They are holding national tournaments in various countries to determine the best players.
Tournaments like these are particularly important in CS:GO. While esports for the shooter are incredibly popular and lucrative, this is only true for so-called “Tier 1” teams, the best teams in the world. Below the elite, there are few opportunities to make money with CS:GO.
However, there were irregularities in the tournament in Finland.
The community suspects the winners are cheaters
This is what the players are accused of: The winners of the tournament were two Finns. After their victory, they were supposed to represent Finland at the next level of the tournament.
However, other Finnish players raised suspicions that the two players had cheated. It was particularly striking that their crosshairs repeatedly jerked towards opponents. Observers noted this behavior looked quite similar to an aimbot.
In the comments of a YouTube video with over 177,000 views, players spoke of an obvious “aimlock.” YouTube users are appalled that the game took place at all. The cheating was so obvious that the match should have been canceled.
Update glitch temporarily disabled cheat detection
This is what happened afterward: The company FACEIT, which organized the tournament for Red Bull, has now reported that the two winners were later banned. Apparently, there were issues with its own “anti-cheat” system:
- FACEIT says that there was a release last week that rendered some types of cheat detections inactive
- Now a new update has been deployed, which has led to a “delayed” ban of the 2 cheaters and 80 other players
The two caught cheaters were disqualified and the runners-up advance to the next round.
Cheaters have already caused damage
This is the problem: The solution isn’t really fair because the cheaters eliminated teams that lost their chance to qualify.
The cheaters won against Jamppi, a well-known CS:GO pro. If they had lost the match, he would have remained in the tournament and had a chance to qualify for the further tournament progression.
FACEIT apologizes to all players who were directly affected by the incident (via faceit).
We reported on the Finn Jamppi and his special story on MeinMMO. He sold his account at the age of 14 to a friend, who used it to cheat.
As a result, Jamppi could no longer become a real CS:GO pro later in his life; an account ban was to blame.
