Counter-Strike 2 professional participant Joel ‘joel’ Holmlund has been completely banned from competitors on account of cheats being discovered on his PC. Nonetheless, a part of that ban was additionally punishment for threatening the Esports Integrity Fee (ESIC) in attempting to get the ban verdict delayed or overturned.
Dishonest is nothing new in Counter-Strike 2 and is even arguably the most important drawback Valve faces in retaining the sport enjoyable and interesting for gamers. It’s notoriously stuffed with cheaters at each rank, leaving the group always pressuring Valve to do extra to counteract offending gamers.
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That is true even in professional play, with professional Counter-Strike having a number of dishonest scandals over time. The most recent banned participant, joel, was a repeat offender who had been flagged by the board a number of instances up to now 2 years.
The ESIC in the end selected to offer this participant a lifetime ban after these occasions, barring him from competing in Counter-Strike 2 or every other esport overseen by the Esports Integrity Fee.
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CS2 participant banned after dishonest and blackmailing officers
The ESIC defined that joel was discovered to be dishonest on August 4, 2024, nearly a yr in the past on the time of publishing this text. He was discovered responsible of getting aimbot, triggerbot, and different cheats on his PC and in addition was discovered to be fixing matches in aggressive play.
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He requested for the fee to delay going public with the decision to ensure that him to search out “alternate employment,” and so they agreed out of courtesy.
Nonetheless, when the ESIC was about to go public with the information, joel blackmailed them with what the fee described as “fabricated allegations”.
“Following the expiration of this grace interval, Mr. Holmlund issued a menace to blackmail ESIC, with fabricated allegations, in response to ESIC’s intention to make the matter public — an act ESIC considers to be an egregious breach of its Integrity Program,” they defined in a public assertion.
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“This newest misconduct constitutes Mr. Holmlund’s third breach of the ESIC Integrity Program inside a 24-month interval and displays a sustained disregard for the rules of integrity and truthful play in esports.”
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From there, they threw the e book on the now-former Counter-Strike 2 professional, hitting him with 12 completely different infractions and giving him an instantaneous lifetime ban from all occasions the ESIC oversees.
Moreover, they beneficial any event organizers who aren’t beneath their umbrella, together with Valve themselves, uphold the ban and bar him from any and each event.
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Even for gamers like forsaken, some of the notorious Counter-Strike cheaters ever, their bans aren’t everlasting. Lifetime bans are a verdict retained for less than essentially the most egregious offenders, making joel one in all few CS gamers who won’t ever be capable of return to professional play in many of the sport’s greatest occasions.
