ESL and Dreamhack have banned three coaches of the CS:GO scene. They were found to be exploiting a spectator bug to gather information.
The severe exploit allowed coaches to glitch across the map and turn the camera to access information they should not be privy to.
Three coaches were banned following an investigation by ESL. Heroic’s Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen, mibr’s dead and Hard Legion’s MechanoGun were found guilty of knowingly abusing the bug and banned up to two years. This marks two well-knwon rosters implicated among them recent ESL One Cologne 2020 champions Heroic.
The glitch in question allowed coaches to observe any spot on the map and share crucial information with their teammates. Hard Legion’s MechanoGun abused the glitch on six maps across three different matches during ESL One Road to Rio, while HUNDEN was found to be abusing the bug in ten rounds during DreamHack Masters Spring. Mibr’s dead was found guilty of exploiting the bug in one round during ESL One Road to Rio.
The three coaches will be unable to attend ESL and DreamHack events for six to 24 months. Their teams have also been retroactively disqualified from the tournaments, resulting in the loss of prize money and ESL Pro Tour points they won in the tournaments.
ESL referee Michal Slowinski searched through over 1000 Demos to uncover the bug abuses over three weeks.
For those wondering how this coaching bug works, here is a short clip of me being bugged on mirage, A spot. You can pick any location on the map you want. And yes, you can rotate the camera angle as much as you want. pic.twitter.com/C0CdDV9zXi
— Michal Slowinski (@michau9_) August 31, 2020
During the last events ESL One Cologne and DreamHack Masters Summer the matches were not affected according to him. However Slowinski and his team are still in the process of checking more replays from past events.
Since the news broke the scene has been in uproard. While many welcomed the harsh sanctions by ESL, some argued that they were too heavy-handed. The incident has also launched an investigation from FLASHPOINT in regards to their matches.
I am making it a priority to get the Flashpoint 1 demos reviewed and if we find similar bug abuse as ESL for their tournaments then we’ll issue bans and fines. More to come on this one.
— Thorin (@Thorin) August 31, 2020
While ESL has forwarded the relevant evidence to developer Valve, so far no further consequences have followed from that according to Heroic’s statement. After an internal investigation Heroic have also decided to suspend their coach HUNDEN immediately as of their newest statement:
More CS:GO:
- ESL One Cologne 2020 Grand Finals Recap
- FURIA.arT: “Valve need to change the mappool or the map system.”
You can find the official statement from ESL here:
ESL official website
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