4 FACEIT admins banned for selling ELO boosts to players

FACEIT admins are usually the ones banning other players, but now four of them are getting banned themselves for violating fair play on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matchmaking service.

Less than a week after Russian CSGO personality Aleksey “OverDrive” Biryukov accused a FACEIT admin of selling ELO boosts for cash, four different admins have been banned from the matchmaking platform. The official statement claims that all the players involved have also had their black market ELO revoked. Here’s how the story unfolded and what it means for legitimate FACEIT players.

The first accusation came on August 29 when OverDrive specifically accused admin luvsteRRRRRR of selling ELO. The statement came with screenshots of highly unusual ELO boosts on multiple accounts. FACEIT quickly responded with a ban, but it appears that OverDrive’s post triggered an investigation from the company. As a result, one admin ban has turned into four.

UPDATE: We concluded the full investigation, finding multiple Elo abuse cases involving CIS Esports Hub Admins. The outcome is:
– All 4 involved CIS Esports Hub Admins have been permanently banned.
– All 8 involved players got their Elo removed and are banned for 3 to 6 month

— FACEIT Community Support (@FACEITSupport) August 31, 2022

The four admins were all members of the CIS Esports Hub, which oversaw competitive events in eastern Europe. The official statement does not specify if luvsteRRRRRR is included in that group of four. The eight players who purchased ELO have had their points taken away and are banned for three to six months. It’s unknown why the lengths of the bans vary.

After 4 admins banned, is FACEIT fair to play on?

With so much counterfeit ELO getting dished out by banned admins, is FACEIT still a safe place to play CSGO?

The biggest potential problem with selling ELO is its potential impact on the esports scene. Many young CSGO hopefuls use FACEIT as both a training platform and a way to advertise their skills. Esports sponsor Team Vitality recently put out a call for 2,700+ ELO players. With enough fake boosts, cheaters could take slots from actual grinders. Even for normal players, fake ranks can result in imbalanced games that waste everyone’s time.

However, only eight players were discovered in this investigation. There could be more floating around out there, but it’s safe to say that the average FACEIT game is still safe to play. It’s important that FACEIT looks into these incidents and develops methods to prevent them from being repeated. If more scandals continue, CSGO players may start to grind out ELO elsewhere.