HUNDEN⁠, zoneR & dead banned for using coach vulnerability

Heroic coach Nikolay "HUNDEN" Petersen, Alexander "zoneR" Bogatyrev from Hard Legion and Ricardo "dead" Sinigaglia from MIBR are banned for using a bug that allowed them to stay in the observer mode on any part of the map and see the movements of the opponent.

ESL representatives after a joint investigation with Valve reached the following verdict:

After closely analysing all matches from ESL and DreamHack competitions which took place in the past months, and consulting with Valve in the process to solidify our findings, we have identified the following coaches to have knowingly misused the bug for a competitive advantage in live tournaments:

  • Hard Legion, MechanoGun at ESL One Road to Rio on 6 maps in 3 matches
  • Heroic, HUNDEN at DreamHack Masters Spring in 10 rounds on 1 map
  • MIBR, dead at ESL One Road to Rio in 1 round on 1 map

Based on the findings and our rulebooks, the following ruling is made after consultation with ESIC:

  • dead will receive a 6-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
  • HUNDEN will receive a 12-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
  • MechanoGun will receive a 24-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
  • The teams will retroactively be disqualified from the tournament in question
  • The teams will forfeit their ESL Pro Tour points from the tournament in question
  • The teams will forfeit their prize money from the tournament in question

Earlier, the bug was publicly announced by several coaches, including Mariusz "Loord" Tsibulski from Wisla Krakow, Luis "peacemaker" Tadeu from MAD Lions and Wilton "zews" Prado from Evil Geniuses. The bug was fixed in the last game update so far.

A video of GamerLegion team manager Igor Bornebush shows the advantage the coach gets when using this bug.