Racist incident sees CS:GO pro Sindi given ban from FACEIT

An ugly incident involving racism and slut-shaming has hit the pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community.

During a game on FACEIT involving several pro players, ACES Esports player Tatyana “Sindi” Gracheva unloaded a number of racial epithets at Noel “melonhead” Raki. The language came during an ugly argument involving multiple players in the game.

An exchange between Monolith Gaming’s Artem “malik” Arkhipov, Winstrike Team’s David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan, and former Epsilon Esports player Robin “robiin” Sjögren wound up dragging in a number of their teammates. During the exchange, Sindi repeatedly directs racials epithets at Melonhead, calling him a “fucking n—-r.” Melonhead took screenshots of the outburst and posted them on Twitter.

The exchange was an ugly one and Sindi was quick to respond with her side of the story on Twitter, including an alleged chat log from the game. While she stays out of the argument for an extended period of time, Melonhead attempts to get a rise out of her boyfriend N0rb3r7 by bringing up nude photographs of her that had been previously circulated among their social circle. This upsets Sindi, sparking the racist outburst. In her post on the topic, she acknowledges Melonhead’s claims as true and stated “a lot of time has passed for me to realize what a mistake I made back then.”

She apologized for using the racial slurs, but vented frustration over what Robiin and Melonhead had said. It is unclear if the chat log is comprehensive, but it leaves none of the players involved looking good.

Sindi received a three-day ban from FACEIT for the infraction, which she claims is a warning due to past good behavior. None of the other players have received punishments for the argument, nor have they acknowledged the incident on social media.