ESL banning multiple coaches due to coach spectator tool exploit

ESL have just released a statement regarding the Coach spectator bug being abused in professional Tier 1 matches. The Coaches caught so far are: Heroic’s Coach Hunden, MiBR’s manager Dead, and Hard Legion’s coach, MechanoGun. Here is their statement:

As part of a recently concluded investigation into the exploitation of a spectating bug in ESL and DreamHack CS:GO tournaments, we are issuing punishments to the coaches of three teams today.

Read: https://t.co/DmM9dP3OUv pic.twitter.com/4fMOhG0RIb

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) August 31, 2020

What is the Coach spectator bug?

Apparently, this coach spectator exploit has been around for a while. Basically, the bug can be abused by having the coaches lock on a position anywhere on the map. This allows the coaches to view certain areas and give information to their players, hence cheating.

For those wondering how this coaching bug works, here is a short clip of me being bugged on mirage, A spot. You can pick any location on the map you want. And yes, you can rotate the camera angle as much as you want. pic.twitter.com/C0CdDV9zXi

— Michal Slowinski (@michau9_) August 31, 2020

ESL banning coaches – How long are the bans of the coaches?

With regards to their lengthy bans, ESL have said the following:

After closely analyzing all matches from ESL and DreamHack competitions which took place in the past months, and consulting with Valve in the process to solidify our findings, we have identified the following coaches to have knowingly misused the bug for a competitive advantage in live tournaments:

Exploitation of coach spectating bug in CS:GO

• Hard Legion, MechanoGun at ESL One Road to Rio on 6 maps in 3 matches
• Heroic, HUNDEN at DreamHack Masters Spring in 10 rounds on 1 map
• MIBR, dead at ESL One Road to Rio in 1 round on 1 map

Based on the findings and our rulebooks, the following ruling is made after consultation with ESIC:

• dead will receive a 6-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
• HUNDEN will receive a 12-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
• MechanoGun will receive a 24-month ban from playing or coaching in competition
• Teams will retroactively be disqualified from the tournament in question
• The teams will forfeit their ESL Pro Tour points from the tournament in question
• The teams will forfeit their prize money from the tournament in question

Where these teams the only ones exploiting the bug?

It is truly saddening to see, especially with the situation we’re in with the online CS era, where cheating is more tempting. It’s a miserable feeling seeing teams like MiBR and Heroic succeed, but you’re not sure if they were abusing the bug or not. On top of that, ESL’s Michau also added that he has another 1000 demo reviews to carry out so that they can identify which teams cheated or not in recent events.

~1500 demos later from tier1 events.

I have another 1000 to go through, time for tier2-3 events! https://t.co/USIRoDXGLk

— Michal Slowinski (@michau9_) August 31, 2020

Definitely a troubling time in professional CS:GO, however ESL banning these coaches might be serious enough for Valve to involve themselves with the situation by listening to the players and fixing the game’s main issues.

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