Former NiP coach Pita admits to cheating with spectator bug

Ninjas in Pyjamas’ former head coach, Faruk Pita, has revealed that he used the coach spectating bug in 2018 during ESL Pro League Season 8 Europe.

Earlier this week, a coaching bug issue was reported by esports referee Michael Slowinski. With help from IT expert Steve Dudenhoeffer, Slowinski had three coaches banned for exploting the coaching bug. This includes Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia from MIBR and Heroic’s Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen.

The coaching bug gives teams a huge advantage, allowing coaches to move their camera while spectating games. Pita decided to come forward with his confession as coaches continued to be called out and suspended for its use. The coach said it would be “better” if it came from himself.

According to Pita, the bug “happened randomly to him,” but at the time he didn’t do anything to stop it.

“It took me five to six rounds to stop it and this is where I did wrong and admit I did wrong and I’m ashamed of it,” Pita explained.

He revealed that he privately contacted Valve on Twitter due to his remorse. He also asked Valve to fix the bug “for the sake of the community.” While he claimed he wasn’t aware exactly how the bug worked, Pita reached out to Valve multiple times. In a screenshot, Pita could be seen telling Valve that there was a bug that allowed coaches to “have freelock on a certain spot on the map when the match is live.”

The developers didn’t answer him.

“All it took was a tweet by Loord and a public opinion for Valve to do anything about this, sadly. If they would have listened to me when I contacted them in 2018 nothing of this today would’ve happened, and I could’ve potentially been the only case,” Pita continued.

He also took some fault of his own, stating he was guilty and had done wrong by using the bug. The purpose of the TwitLonger wasn’t to make excuses, but give readers some context as to how it happened in the first place.

“I accept any punishment handed out to me. I realize this will harm my reputation as a coach but I can’t undo things even though I would like to. I just have to accept this and admit my guilt. I’m sorry to everyone that I know and who knows me. I understand that you might look at me differently after this but I hope you can forgive me one day. The bug got the better of me, I acted irrational and I fucked up. I never used that bug afterwards,” Pita told his followers.

It’s possible that Pita’s confession was brought forth by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC), who told CSGO players that there was a “confession period” one hour before Pita posted the TwitLonger. The ESIC said that anyone can admit to using the bug before September 13 as they continue to analyze matches from 2016 to 2020 in an attempt to find more bug users.

The community was torn over Pita’s reveal. Some commended his honesty, while others felt he was only coming forward because of the threat that he’d soon be revealed and banned by the ESIC.

The ESIC and Valve have yet to make statements on Pita’s confession to using the coach spectator bug.