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The 5 most awkward CS:GO Pro bans
Another one bites the dust live on-air, bringing the total to “too many,” so here are the worst five.
The last few months have seen Valve cracking down on a fresh influx of Counter-Strike hackers and botters. But the nets it’s cast wide have taken in a few larger catches with the little fish and smurf accounts usually banned in waves. In the latest incident, ESP’s Flex found himself on the receiving end of an orbital banhammer strike during a live-streamed match – leaving the casters, and team-mates, in a very awkward position.
But this is far from the first time this has happened, as impossible as it sounds. Every time a Steam Sale puts CS:GO at a discount, thousands of new accounts buy up for a fresh chance to mess around with hacks. Unfortunately some pros get caught up in this and, eventually, Valve sends them on VACation. Here are a few enjoying the embarrassing rays of public disapproval on their time off from professional CS:GO.
Flex, ESP vs Grandpa Berets
The third-tier American league match didn’t promise many fireworks, but it was still dutifully casted by ESEA TV – and boy are we glad it was. Having just remarked on how ESP were standing surprisingly strong against firm opposition, a console message informed them of a possible reason why.
Flex, only acting as a stand-in for ESP, was booted from the region’s servers for cheating. “Everything was very rushed and we only needed him to play two matches,” team captain espgodson said in a Reddit thread after the fact. “None of us had any idea he was cheating and absolutely no one on our team would ever intentionally do something like that.”
Emilio, Team Property vs HellRaisers
It’s not just relegated to the lower tiers of play, though. This on-air ban comes courtesy of a FragBite Masters match between Ukrainian powerhouse HellRaisers and Swedish Team Property, in the run up to DreamHack Winter 2014. Probably the funniest/most cringeworthy moment is immediately after the console message appears informing players that Joel “Emili0ooo” Mako has been VAC banned.
Casters Semmler and Anders struggle to find the words while S1mple, who happened to be the on-screen viewpoint at the time, just freezes – AWP-scoped up – for what feels like forever. And they still didn’t pause the round. Incredible.
Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian, Titan
Picture the scene: just six hours until your flight to the biggest event on the CS:GO calendar, DreamHack Winter. Your team is qualified for the finals and stands hotly tipped to win, or at the very least place highly. You settle in for a night’s well-earned rest before heading out. But Valve has other plans for you.
KQLY’s VAC ban shook many members of the community to their core, but none moreso than Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, who KQLY replaced on Titan shortly before DreamHack invitationals. His reaction to the news, while he was streaming himself, says everything. “Seriously? No. Seriously?! No. Seriously? Noooo.” You can watch the whole thing on YouTube [beware of the strong language].
Gordon “Sf” Giry, Epsilon Gaming
Caught in the same ban wave as KQLY, Epsilon were also disqualified from DreamHack Winter after Sf was found to be using the same hack. The hack, detected first on ESEA’s servers and leading to the banning of another professional, Simon “smn” Beck, caused quite a ruckus just before the global stage of DreamHack.
Fodder, pro streamer
Jonathan “Fodder” Reynolds has a modicum of followers on Twitch, enough to make a decent income from the venture. Well, HAD. In a dramatic twist to some late evening grouped queuing, Fodder was prevented from entering the server his friends were pulled into. The awkward silence following was punctuated only by a single comment on the Skype call they were in: “Rest in Peace.” Everything after that is just some more hole-digging as he scrambles to find excuses about something to do with a friend’s smurf account. Rest in peace, dude.
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