Despite the Esports Integrity Commission’s decision to ban a number of coaches for spectator bug abuse, several esports organizations fielding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams have decided to continue working with their banned coaches.
The investigation of the coaching bug exploit kicked off as soon as it was brought to light by official Michal Slowinski. ESIC’s preliminary report saw 37 coaches banned from acting out their duties in competitive matches. Soon after the esports watchdog’s announcement, OG, Heroic, Boom, Hard Legion, ENCE, and AGO came forward in support of their coaches despite the findings.
OG was the first to publicly announce its support for Casper “ruggah” Due, who was banned for 3.75 months for using the bug once during his time in Dignitas. Boom’s Alessandro “Apoka” Marcucci will also be keeping his job after using the bug in more than one instance. Both the coaches earned concessions in their punishment from ESIC for confessing to the allegation and cooperating with the investigation.Â
AGO has also decided to retain MikoĹ‚aj “miNIr0x” MichaĹ‚kĂłw’s services after the coach has received a sentence of three and a half months from ESIC.
While fans applauded OG’s decision to keep its coach as Ruggah came across the bug on the first pistol round and didn’t use it again, Hard Legion’s support for its coach Sergey “starix” Ischuk was met with heavy criticism.
The Russian organization posted a war hero edit of Starix to announce that the coach would remain to be a part of Hard Legion. Esports fans and professionals bashed the organization for celebrating an offender.
Cloud9’s general manager Henry “HenryG” Greer expressed his dismay in a tweet.
Feet up for 10 months and celebrated as a (war?) hero.
Dropped the ball on this one, lads. https://t.co/UlzqvZ6DqN
— C9 HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) September 29, 2020
While other teams are waiting for the disqualification period to be over, Heroic has already moved Hunden to an analyst role following ESIC’s verdict. ENCE followed suit and announced that the organization is looking for a new head coach while Slaava “Twista” Räsänen acts as its analyst.
Both Twista and Hunden were hit with the harsh bans of 15.75 and eight months, respectively. The severe ban is attributed to the broad use of the exploit across numerous matches.
On paper, these organizations are not breaching any rules, as ESIC’s punishment prohibits coaches from engaging with players in any way 15 minutes prior to the match and until the end. However, many are raising questions on the ethical responsibility of organizations offering these analyst slots to coaches found guilty of cheating.
Some of these orgs really are a joke, their coaches found guilty of using the bug, multiple times and with clear intent of gaining a competitive advantage and you simply move them to an “analyst” position? Seriously?
— Janko Paunovic (@YNk) October 1, 2020
So far, only 20% of the investigation has been completed. ESIC will be releasing the second and final part of the report in October 2020.
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