ESIC will soon hand additional bans to coaches who abused the controversial coach bug, according to ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith.
Smith was a guest on INSITE’s In the Crosshair podcast on Aug. 23, where he revealed there are new findings on the coach bug scandal that will result in more bans. “They [unnamed coaches] will be banned. They are not banned yet, but they will be banned,” Smith claimed.
The Commissioner dove into the details, and said there are currently coaches in the competitive CS:GO scene that will be banned by ESIC in the near future. “A very very few who […] you would describe an active employee, guys above sort of tier-three, but yes. There are guys who will be banned.”
Afterward, Smith explained the precise behavior for which the coaches will be banned, since in ESIC’s eyes, there are four different instances of using the coach bug. The company will be handing bans for what it calls “cheating”—moving around during the bug and using that information to gain a competitive advantage.
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It was also naturally said the banned coaches would have the chance to appeal, but given ESIC’s evidence, Smith believes they won’t achieve much. He didn’t announce when exactly the bans will be made public, or who precisely will be slammed with a ban hammer.
The conversation itself resolved mostly around ESIC’s actions and the matchfixing scandal in CS:GO which came to light two years ago, in August 2021. Back then, it was said there would be more updates on investigations of 34 individuals, but none were ever given. Smith went into the details, claiming ESIC is heavily under-resourced, and while they are convinced of some players fixing, they actually can’t take legal action against them as they don’t have enough evidence.
