CSGO player banned for cheating live during RMR qualifier

Cheating in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the worst possible offense, which makes getting banned live in tournament all the more embarrassing.

Cheating in Valve matchmaking is one thing, but attempting to lie your way to a major is another matter entirely. Yet, that’s exactly what one North American CSGO player intended to do. During a Regional Major Rankings event for the upcoming Paris Major, one player was unceremoniously booted from the lobby with the following admin announcement that he had been cheating. Here’s what we know about the incident and how fans reacted to the spiring CSGO pro getting banned live on stream.

The incident took place during a live match of the North American Paris Major RMR qualifier, putting it dangerously close to the top level of CSGO esports. The match was supposed to be a fair duel between amateur stacks Strife and Fun Mix, but Mix’s player pawt was strangely booted from the lobby during the map veto phase. The nine remaining players expressed confusion, though the reason why was quickly explained by an admin. 

Shortly following the ban, an admin for the RMR qualifier clarified why. pawt was apparently using some kind of external cheating program when he connected to the server. Staff did not clarify exactly what kind of cheats pawt intended to use. Whatever they were, the problem has already been dealt with.

pawt joins list of CSGO pros who got banned live

While pawt is the latest CSGO player to get banned during a live match, he is far from the first.

One of the most famous instances of a CSGO player getting banned on stream involves Joel “emilio” Mako, who played for Team Property at the time. 11 rounds in on Dust_2 against an Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev-led HellRaisers, emilio was suddenly booted from the match with a VAC ban applied to his account. 

The most iconic incident of a CSGO player getting caught is definitely Nikhil “forsaken” Kumawat, an Indian player who was caught using cheats on LAN and subsequently banned from the pro scene. His cheats, cleverly titled word.exe, were discovered on his tournament computer in the middle of a match on Cache. forsaken’s ban is technically set to expire in 2024, but there is little to no chance of him ever playing CSGO in a serious capacity again.

Cheating is unfortunately more frequent in the developing CSGO scene than many players would like to admit. pawt was caught almost as soon as he entered the server, which shows that cheating is taken seriously. However, there’s always a chance that unfair play is involved in smaller online tournaments.

Hopefully, this incident with the North American Paris Major RMR qualifier will serve as an example to future ambitious cheaters.