Several weeks after the fact, Alexandre “gAuLeS” Borba is finally apologizing to Chaos Esports Club.
The Brazilian caster took to Reddit to state that he was wrong in leveling accusations of cheating against the North American squad. His apology follows increased pressure to apologize from tournament organizers. He also apologized during a live stream.
“It was not my intention to inspire anger or actions that affected another person negatively. I understand what happened and my role in it. I made a mistake. Accusing someone of cheating without solid evidence is very serious, especially when people approach matches emotionally and bet money and take things too far,” gAuLeS said.
He went on to cite his casual approach to streaming as the cause of his accusations of cheating by Chaos EC, something he halfway acknowledged in his apology. He also stated he wanted to “build a bridge” to the international Counter-Strike community after the incident.
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gAuLeS whipped up a huge controversy in June by accusing Nathan “leaf” Orf of cheating during a series against MIBR during cs_summit 6. These sentiments were echoed by some pro players, most notably Evil Geniuses’ Tarik “tarik” Celik, and became even louder when Fernando “fer” Alvarenga questioned the legitimacy of the result.
This led to dogged harassment of Chaos EC’s entire team across social media. Worse, the 16-year-old leaf received death threats over the allegations.
Pro players and broadcast talent eventually came out to defend leaf and criticize gAuLeS’ comments as irresponsible. While some of the clips that were circulated to suggest leaf was cheating were deemed questionable by some, his overall body of work wasn’t so unusual as to suggest that he was cheating.
Chaos EC didn’t advance far in cs_summit 6 regardless, falling in eighth place. MIBR also suffered an early exit from the second group stage, a result completely unrelated to Chaos.
(2/2) It’s not appropriate for someone who in the eyes of the audience represents our product to cast aspersions or otherwise bring the game into disrepute in or out of the official broadcast, especially if you’re a long term partner.
— Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) August 6, 2020
gAuLeS’ apology to Chaos and leaf comes six weeks after his comments. It also comes after pointed criticism from ESL executive Michal “Carmac” Blicharz, who offered that gAuLeS’ actions were “inappropriate.” This led to widespread speculation that gAuLeS’ post on Reddit lacked sincerity and was simply a way to placate ESL.
Chaos EC has been on a hot streak since the blow-up with gAuLeS. The team has take first place in four North American leagues, including WINNERS League Season 4, Mountain Dew League North America, and the Mythic Invite League. The squad is next set to compete in the North American events for DreamHack Open Summer and ESL One Cologne.
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