ESIC bans 37 CS:GO coaches for exploiting spectator bug

Dimapur, Sep. 28 (EMN): A month after ESL imposed bans on coaches from CS:GO teams Hard Legion, Heroic, and MIRB, for abusing the spectator bug, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) issued sanctions against 37 coaches for abusing the same glitch.

The spectator bug in CS:GO lets coaches ‘spectate’ from anywhere on the map without the opposing team (or anyone else) knowing. This gave anyone abusing the bug an unfair advantage because it essentially allowed them a birds-eye view of portions of the map they wouldn’t usually be able to see.

According to ESIC, “On 4 September ESIC announced an investigation into the historical abuse of a bug in CS:GO’s spectator mode (Spectator Bug). ESIC contracted the services of Michal Slowinski (the discoverer of wrongful use of this exploit) to work with ESIC in the fulfilment of the inquiry.”

An overview of the outcomes of the first part of the ESIC investigation
• ESIC initially estimated that it would need to review 25,000 demos in order to assess the exploitation of the Spectator Bug. When accessing the demo databases of both the ESEA and HLTV, ESIC retrieved 99,650 demos (approx. 15.2TB of data).
• As of the date of this statement, ESIC has reviewed approximately 20% of the total demos available for review. However, ESIC notes that the demos already reviewed (which form the conclusions identified in this statement) likely comprise the most substantial cases of abuse.
• Importantly, only 0.1% of the total demos available for review (99,650) have, as at the date of this statement, returned a positive indication of Spectator Bug abuse.
• Upon investigation, we have identified evidence that the Spectator Bug had previously been referred to admins in various non-ESIC member tournaments as far back as 2017. ESIC is not aware of how these reports were treated by non-members as we do not have operational visibility of any actions that were taken. Accordingly, ESIC will not make any comment relating to prior reports of the Spectator Bug to tournament admins by individuals.
• As a result of our investigations to date, ESIC has issued sanctions against 37 offending parties. The details of these sanctions are found in Annexure A attached to this statement which is titled ‘Sanction Outcomes’.
• It is noted that ESIC could not ascertain, with any reasonable certainty, whether the teams related to the offending parties were complicit in the exploitation of the Spectator Bug at the time that the offences took place. As such, ESIC will not make a comment in this regard and encourages the community to refrain from speculation on this element.
• ESIC anticipates that it will only need to issue one further report at the end of October which will conclude the investigation into Spectator Bug abuse (subject to additional complications that may arise during the investigative process).

ESIC has informed that they had reviewed roughly 20 per cent of the total demos available for review. In order to standardise the sanctions, ESIC has devised a tier system that assigns ‘demerit points’ to each offender which in turn affects the duration of their ban.

Here’s the full list of the 37 coaches that have been banned along with team and ban duration details:
• Twista—iGame.com: 15.75 months
• casle—maquinas: 10 months
• Dinamito—Furious Gaming: 10 months
• ArnoZ1K4—Evidence: 10 months
• Rejin—Tricked: 19.8 months
• glouDH—Freestyle: 10 months
• prd—Neverest: 10 months
• nook—QB Fire: 7.5 months
• rikz—DETONA: 10 months
• Apoka—Luminosity/INTZ/BOOM: 5.4 months
• MechanoGun—Hard Legion: 36 months
• Hellpopovich—9z: 10 months
• fuRy^—DreamEaters: 7.5 months
• Solaar—Syman/k23: 10 months
• HUNDEN—Heroic: 8 months
• dead—SK Gaming/MIBR: 6.5 months
• guerri—FURIA: 4 months
• pita—Ninjas in Pyjamas: 10 months
• AKIMOV—Hard Legion: 7.5 months
• F_1N—Gambit Youngsters: 8.75 months
• ellllll—Imperial/paiN: 10 months
• peu—W7M: 5 months
• RobbaN—FaZe Clan: 5.5 months
• Loord—Team Kinguin/Aristocracy: 6 months
• ToH1o—ex-Outlaws/Windigo Gaming: 10 months
• Andi—NAVI: 10 months
• pepik—eSuba: 10 months
• B1GGY—Heretics: 7.5 months
• chrille—Epsilon/Red Reserve: 10 months
• starix—NAVI: 10 months
• ave—North: 6 months
• rosey—Nordavind: 10 months
• LMBT_R—Hellraisers/forZe: 7.5 months
• FeTiSh—Heroic: 3.75 months
• miNIr0x—AGO: 3.75 months
• pNshr—SKADE: 3.75 months
• ruggah—Dignitas: 3.75 months

Sanctions issued by ESIC as a result of this investigation will mean that coaches affected
• must not actively or passively communicate with the team starting 15 minutes prior to the official match start up until the end of the match;
• must not be physically present around the team starting 15 minutes prior to the official match start up until the end of the match;
• must not be on the game server during official matches;
• must not be on the official match channel on the Discord server;
• must not be part of the official map veto process nor be in communication with the team during this process.

According to ESIC, “As per all investigations conducted by ESIC, our determinations have effect across all of our membership, including ESL, DreamHack, WePlay, BLAST, Nodwin, Eden, LVP and others.”

“We know that most coaches, players, tournament organisers, publishers and developers, fans, sponsors and broadcasters want CS:GO and Esports to be a clean and fair competition between players and teams doing their very best to win,” informed ESIC on their website.