Legacy coach banned from IEM Cologne Major 2026 matches

Alan "adrrr" Riveros, coach of the Brazilian team Legacy, has been banned from being behind the players' backs for the remainder of IEM Cologne Major 2026 after he was repeatedly caught communicating with the squad outside of authorized time windows. This was announced by the event organizers.

Prior to this latest violation, the coach had already received several warnings. The decisive incident occurred during Legacy's final timeout in their match against PARIVISION. After the tactical pause ended, he gave a player a thumbs-up, which he later confirmed in an interview on the Gaules stream.

The official statement from ESL reads:

After reviewing repeated violations of the Major ruleset, the decision has been made that adr will no longer be permitted to coach the team for the remainder of the event's matches," ESL's statement reads.

adr received multiple warnings for interacting with Legacy players during rounds, with the most recent incident involving the use of hand signals to confirm a strategy during a match.

At Valve-sponsored tournaments, communication between coaches and players is strictly limited to designated tactical timeouts and breaks between halves. This violation is also covered by the IEM Cologne Major 2026 regulations, which list possible penalties for repeat offenses as expulsion from the match, and if the incident significantly impacts the game, "more severe" sanctions may be applied.

This is also stated in Valve's additional regulations for the Majors:

Coaches are not to communicate with (i.e., be seen, heard, or felt by) the players by any means at any time with the exception of warmup, half-time, and tactical timeouts.

IEM Cologne Major 2026 will take place from June 2-21, 2026, in Cologne, Germany. 32 teams will compete for a $1.25 million prize pool. Detailed information about the competition can be found via the link.

Origin: x.com