The career of former CS:GO professional Nikhil “forsaken” Kumawat lasted less than half a year, yet he managed to write eSports history in that short time. Although not necessarily in the way he probably dreamed it would be.
What kind of player was he? In April 2018, the American eSports organization OpTic decided to form an Indian CS:GO team. This was at a time when the Indian eSports scene was largely taking place in internet cafes, which was a big deal.
Nick “Ashes” Ridgeway from OpTic said at the time that they were passionately working to build and support new, exciting regions.
After the tryouts, for which there were countless applicants, the 5 members of OpTic’s Indian CS:GO team were finally established. One of them was Nikhil “forsaken” Kumawat, who caused perhaps the biggest scandal in Indian eSports during his brief four-month career.
Besides forsaken, the team consisted of:
- Vishal “haiVaan” Sharma (Captain)
- Sabayasachi “Antidote” Bose
- Agneya “Marzil” Koushik
- Lukas “yb” Gröning (Coach)
- Rishabh “formlesS” Tomar, who was replaced by “yb”
Image: OpTic Gaming via HLTV and eXTREMESLAND 2018 via Twitter
Only one map away from victory
How did OpTic India’s career go? After a successful start for OpTic India and first victories in minor tournaments, the newly formed team managed to qualify as the only representatives of their region for the eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia in Shanghai, the first major LAN tournament of their career.
The first match against the Malaysian team FrostFire ended in a disastrous 16:6 for OpTic India. But in the next game against the Vietnamese team Revolution, it seemed like the tide was turning. OpTic India managed to win the first map and secured the lead on the next map.
Nikhil Hathhiramani, editor-in-chief of CSGO2Asia, said at the time that OpTic India was only one map away from victory. But then everything went wrong. In the middle of the match, a technical timeout was called, which would drag on for over an hour.
Forsaken caught live
How bitter the career ended: As it turned out, forsaken’s teammate Marzil called the timeout due to technical issues. However, the officials took the opportunity to take a closer look at the support player’s computer, as the AntiCheat software had raised alarms: forsaken, against whom there had already been suspicions in the past, was apparently cheating.
The eSports athlete tried to salvage the situation somehow. After initially failing to prevent the tournament admins from taking a closer look at his PC, he was eventually asked to leave the game with Alt+Tab.
It immediately became clear that another program was running on forsaken’s PC: “word.exe”. However, this program was not Microsoft’s writing program but an aim assist that the player activated via a special button on his mouse.
forsaken made one last desperate attempt to simply delete the program – in front of referees and up to 6,800 viewers watching the tournament (via escharts). As if all this wasn’t enough, there is also a video of the humiliating moment:
From great hope to meme
What happened next? OpTic India was immediately disqualified, and the team was shortly thereafter disbanded. As it turned out, forsaken had not resorted to cheating software for the first time. However, the victory of OpTic India at the ESL India Premiership 2018 Finals was retrospectively revoked, and forsaken received a 5-year ban from the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC).
Valve issued a lifetime ban – they are notoriously not fond of fun.
While forsaken completely withdrew from the public eye, the other members of his team continued their careers in eSports and achieved some – legitimate – successes with new teams. Antidote and Marzil have since switched to Valorant, while haiVaan is active as a streamer.
The YouTuber Rohan “HydraFlick” Ledwani spoke in 2021 with haiVaan, forsaken’s ex-teammate, about the disgraced player. He stated that he did not know what had become of forsaken, that he had not spoken to anyone from the team since the fiasco at eXTREMESLAND, and that he had even flown home alone.
Apparently, forsaken was crammed onto the first flight home by OpTic, while the remaining team members had to wait several days for their return flights. Meanwhile, the events surrounding forsaken went viral.
Spectators not only dug up suspicious old clips of the player but also pounced on the name that forsaken had tried to use to disguise his cheats. “word.exe” became a meme and circulated in the CS:GO scene, where it became synonymous with cheats.
To this day, Google returns videos and articles about forsaken when searching for “word.exe” before it gets to the writing program (as of June 2023).
Ex-colleague says: “He got what he deserved”
What makes the story particularly bitter: OpTic India was supposed to be a chance for a region that had not been able to establish itself in eSports until then. Even though India had many talented players, there was a lack of opportunities: aspiring professionals had hardly any options to obtain hardware of the necessary caliber.
The investments of an American organization like OpTic were supposed to change all that, bringing India onto the big international stage. Now the project had crashed spectacularly, and the country’s reputation as an eSports location was massively damaged.
It also didn’t help that Bubun “The Guru” Panday, the captain of the team that had eliminated OpTic from the ESL India Premiership 2018 Finals and had again competed in a rematch of the Finals, was also accused of cheating.
Accordingly, the anger towards forsaken was also immense, as he stood as a huge disappointment for the nation. Reports suggest that angry fans even contemplated lurking at the airport for the player upon his return.
For his teammates, whose dream seemed to burst in an instant, the matter was particularly painful. Marzil can be seen in a 2021 video recalling the exact moment: he did not know whether to be angry or sad. Regarding his former colleague, he says:
He ruined a lot of things for a lot of people. But none of that will come back, so there’s no point in shouting at him. I think he has received the social media punishment he deserves, being expelled and remembered as the person who destroyed Indian Counter-Strike eSports. That will haunt him, no matter where he goes.
Even at OpTic, they were far from pleased with how forsaken had single-handedly driven the big project into the ground. After all, they had wanted to establish themselves in a new region ahead of everyone else, to be a “first mover”. Hector “HECZ” Rodriguez from OpTic spoke about the incident for the first time in 2020 and recalled:
When we scouted in India, and it turned into a disaster because of that damn cheater forsaken. To wear that brand [OpTic] and do that, he was damn lucky I wasn’t there.
“If I could, I would uninstall it immediately”
Why did he cheat? forsaken deleted all his social media presence after the scandal but agreed to an interview with AFK Gaming and also released a statement regarding his cheating.
The player apologized to his teammates and expressed that he felt guilty for having taken their chances away from them. Regarding the reasons for his cheating, forsaken stated that there was no financial or family pressure; he just wanted to be “perfect in every aspect of the game”.
While he had confidence in his decisions and understanding of the game, he did not have confidence in his aiming skills. To compensate for this shortcoming, he chose the wrong path.
I abused the trust of the people who believed in me. I dragged my country’s name through the mud, and I know that it’s unforgivable. No one but me is to blame for this. No one but me should have to bear the hate and the blame for it.
What would he have done differently? forsaken also admitted that he regretted ever starting with Counter-Strike. Nothing good came of it. If he could go back, he would uninstall the game on the same day he started. He has now lost the one thing he had prioritized above everything else.
I know my career in CS is over. All I can do is try to make something of my life so that I can help my family. I never thought about doing anything other than Counter-Strike. I will try to work on my mistakes and become a better person.
Whether forsaken has managed to start anew, we may never know. However, it is unlikely that he will try to return to the world of eSports after his ESIC ban expires.
How quickly a career in eSports can end was recently experienced by Lithuanian professional Vilius Malinauskas. The 22-year-old did not commit any gaming offenses but managed to ruin his career through his behavior outside the tournament scene.
Valorant: 22-year-old ruins his professional career in 27 seconds on Twitch – Riot bans him for life
