NAVI, Team Spirit & 13 more addressed Valve to investigate Akuma's performance

Fifteen participants of the recenr CIS RKMR event EPIC League CIS 2021 signed an open letter to Valve, where they've asked the developer CS:GO to conduct a full investigation into the potential fraud Akuma team at the RMR-tournament for the CIS. The text of the letter leads HLTV.org.

In their letter, the teams expressed suspicion that Akuma players were receiving real-time data from third parties that allowed them to see their opponents' positions on the map. Also, the letter describes the problems of the organizers of EPIC League CIS 2021.

Open letter to VALVE’s CS:GO division

Dear CS:GO team,

We want to share our feedback on the CIS RMR held by the RESF. Our mutual concern is a suspicion of dishonest play from the AKUMA team / players. Based on the information we have, we suspect that the AKUMA team/players received live data from third parties on external devices in order to gain the unfair advantage of seeing opponents’ positions on the map at all times.

In its statement, RESF claimed that no evidence was found that Akuma violated the integrity of the tournament. However, we doubt that the investigation followed all of the appropriate protocols because of the following limitations:

- TeamSpeak communications were never recorded. Teams repeatedly questioned this decision and asked that all communications be recorded, but their requests were dismissed. The RESF explained this with the fact that recording TeamSpeak communications was not in Valve’s requirements. However, we believe that recording TeamSpeak communications has long been the norm for every big tournament, not to mention the qualifiers for a Major;
- There was no third-party anti-cheat, which has long been an industry standard and an additional tool for any leading TO;
- In some of the matches there was no GOTV delay, while in others there was a delay of up to 30 seconds.

Considering this, we ask that you involve ESIC or any other competent authority not only to conduct a full investigation into AKUMA, but also to lay out protocols to ensure that this scenario will not occur again in the future. If the legitimacy of AKUMA’s actions is confirmed, this will also help their players by minimizing any pressure that they might face from the community in future tournaments.

Given the specifics of the described situation, we are eager to provide all the information our teams have in order to find the truth behind what happened.

For the upcoming tournaments, regardless of the outcome of the investigation, we believe that following requirements should be considered:

- Data providers can only sell data with a 20-30 second delay;
- TeamSpeak communications must be recorded by all teams for every game;
- GOTV must have a 120-second delay;
- In addition to a camera in front of the player, there should be an extra camera capturing the whole setup of the player;
- Additional anti-cheat on top of VAC;
- Other (TBD)

We recognize that data providers are an essential part of the CS:GO ecosystem, and this should continue to be the case. However, we need to make sure that this data is safe from those willing to abuse the system and gain unfair competitive advantage.

We look forward to your feedback.

Yours faithfully,

100PG
1WIN
bankaPepsi
Entropiq
forZe
Gambit
Grond
IN.GAME
K23
NAVI
Nemiga
Team Spirit
Team Unique
Trident
Virtus.pro