ESIC Bans 37 CS:GO Coaches Following Coaching Bug Investigation
The Esports Integrity Commision (ESIC) has announced that they have banned 37 Coaches for using a spectator bug in CS:GO. As part of the ongoing investigation, the bans range from 3.75 months to three years.
Among those sentenced are Heroic coach Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen, FaZe coach Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, NiP’s Faruk "pita" Pita, Na’Vi’s Andrey "Andi" Prokhorov and Sergey "starix" Ischuk. Hard Legion’s Aleksandr "MechanoGun" Bogatyrev received the longest sentence with 36 months of being banned from coaching.
Securing data from HLTV and ESEA servers, ESIC performed an initial scan of 99,650 demos of which only 0.1% of them showed signs of exploitation. Once filtered through by software scanning specific parameters, the demos were reviewed manually.
The ban comes in to place for anybody who had been found to be using the exploit, with FURIA's Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira, being banned for four months for using the bug on just two maps during ECS Season 7 Week 2 against Luminosity and Complexity. Others had been using the exploit for years such as Aleksandr "zoneR" Bogatiryev who was found guilty of 16 separate accounts.
The respective bans mean that the coaches will not be able to be within the teams' vicinity 15 minutes before any competitive game is scheduled. This will be in place until the game concludes, with no communication to any member of the organisation/team they represent. The suspended coaches will not be allowed inside of any game server during official matches, including the map veto stage. They can continue to coach the team in unofficial matches and practices, should they be given the chance by the organisations and players.
Click to enlargeESIC stated: "We understand that these revelations have been tough for many people within the CS:GO community, but we believe it is in the long-term best interests of the game and all of esports for integrity breaches to be dealt with head-on.
"We know that most coaches, players, tournament organisers, publishers and developers, fans, sponsors and broadcasters want CS:GO and esports to be clean and fair competition between players and teams doing their very best to win. We see our job as being to ensure that that happens and that corrupt and bad actors are rehabilitated or removed."
Each coach was given the chance to reduce their suspension by cooperating with ESIC, with the following reductions being made:
- 12.5% reduction for a partially accepted confession
- 20% reduction for assistance in the investigation
- 25% reduction for a full accepted confession.
- 40% reduction for a confession made prior to the investigation being announced.
These reductions were stackable.
A full list of suspended coaches and their respective bans:
- Aleksandr "zoneR" Bogatiryev - 36 months (0% reduction)
- Allan "Rejin" Petersen - 19.8 months (45%)
- Slaava "Twista" Räsänen - 15.75 months (12.50%)
- Peter "casle" Sørensen - 10 months (0%)
- Rodrigo "dinamo" Haro - 10 months (0%)
- Arno "ArnoZ1K4" Junior - 10 months (0%)
- Eliomar "glou" Hernandez - 10 months (0%)
- Arthur "prd" Resende - 10 months (0%)
- Henrique "rikz" Waku - 10 months (0%)
- Germán "hellpa" Morath - 10 months (0%)
- Aset "Solaar" Sembiyev - 10 months (0%)
- Faruk "pita" Pita - 10 months (0%)
- Bruno "ellllll" Ono - 10 months (0%)
- Anton "ToH1o" Georgiev - 10 months (0%)
- Andrey "Andi" Prokhorov - 10 months (0%)
- Milan "pepik" Gellebra - 10 months (0%)
- Christian "chrille" Lindberg - 10 months (0%)
- Sergey "starix" Ischuk - 10 months (0%)
- Jasmeet "RoSeY" Gill - 10 months (0%)
- Ivan "F_1N" Kochugov - 8.75 months (12.50%)
- Nicolai "HUNDEN" Petersen - 8 months (20%)
- Alexey "NooK" Kozlovskiy - 7.5 months (25%)
- Egor "fuRy^" Morin - 7.5 months (25%)
- Erik "AKIMOV" Akimov - 7.5 months (25%)
- Morgan "B1GGY" Madour - 7.5 months (25%)
- Sergey "lmbt" Bezhanov - 7.5 months (25%)
- Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia - 6.5 months (35%)
- Alexander "ave" Holdt - 6 months (40%)
- Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski - 6 months (40%)
- Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström - 5.5 months (45%)
- Alessandro "Apoka" Marcucci - 5.4 months (85%)
- Pedro "peu" Lopes - 5 months (0%)
- Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira - 4 months (60%)
- Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen - 3.75 months (25%)
- Mikołaj "miNirox" Michałków - 3.75 months (25%)
- Nikolay "pNshr" Paunin - 3.75 months (25%)
- Casper "ruggah" Due - 3.75 months (25%)
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