ESL review cheating rules

4-12-2014 02:29

ESL have come forward with a press release about updates to their cheating rules and to discuss recent disqualifications from the upcoming Pro League.

In light of the controversy associated with professional level cheating in the past few weeks, ESL have updated their cheating policies for ESL affiliated matches and events. These changes are apparently in tandem with concurrent communication taking place with Valve.

One example of this cooperation is that players who receive VAC bans will also receive two year cheating bans from ESL. This rule is further explained as such:

"The date when the player was banned by VAC will be the start date of the two years cheating ban on ESL. This is a step we are going to roll out over time for everyone on ESL as we get verified information, but we have already started handing out cheating-related bans to notable persons where we have verified information available."

These updated rules certainly mean that notable players who have received VAC bans in the last year such as Hovik "⁠KQLY⁠" Tovmassian, Gordon "⁠Sf⁠" Giry, Simon "⁠smn⁠" Beck, and Anil "⁠cLy⁠" Gülec will henceforth be met with cheating bans from the league.

Players such as Hovik "⁠KQLY⁠" Tovmassian have already been doled out ESL cheating bans.

ESL have also commented on the seemingly contradictory disqualification of mousesports from the Pro League, while Titan and Epsilon remain invited despite having fielded VAC Banned players in their roster. ESL had this to say:

"The Titan and Epsilon case is quite different from the disqualification of mousesports. While mousesports actively played with and used a cheater in the qualification, Titan and Epsilon were invited to the League. Neither of them had to play for the invite and never played in any qualification matches and therefore our disqualification rule for cheating does not apply in this case. While we could have dropped the invitation, we still think that, even without the now-banned players, both teams have lots of potential and deserve an invite to the League.”

The full press release can be found here. The Pro League is set to kick off at 19:00 on December 10th.

nice

2014-12-04 02:29

4 replies

no u

2014-12-04 02:30

1 reply

2014-12-05 01:39

You are everywhere.

2014-12-04 11:15

I know

2014-12-04 14:25

najs

2014-12-04 02:31

yes

" we still think that, even without the now-banned players, both teams have lots of potential and deserve an invite to the League." Epsilon has 2 players, gj

2 replies

Lol+1 Mouz are a fucking good team, yet they are burdened by their past failures. Whereas with a team like epsilon, it's the opposite. People remember them from past successes so they get a lot of opportunities, but they are a worse team than mouz currently. Idk, if this new epsilon lineup is true, maybe they will return to the top of the scene, maybe they won't, all I know is, mouz are already there.

2014-12-04 03:53

esl is a joke

2014-12-04 03:59

Nice

good news

not nice

2014-12-04 02:33

This is garbage. Epsilon and Titan were invited on the basis of performance established when they had cheaters on their respective rosters. That's a qualification in and of itself. They should play through another qual with other teams to get their spots. Along with mouz.

18 replies

exactly, how fucking ignorant can they be to not realize this?

2014-12-04 02:36

3 replies

They do realize it. Its called public relations.

2014-12-04 07:27

i doubt they realize it, esl are pretty stupid operall

2014-12-04 14:56

Lol, nahh.

2014-12-04 20:15

That's irrelevant, since they specified in their statement that even while reevaluating their current roster, they still think they're worthy of an invite. You could see that as a "re-invite" if you prefer.

2014-12-04 02:39

12 replies

Epsilon has 2 players after Titan snags one. gj ESL

2014-12-04 02:40

But the cheating and cheaters weren't just padding their own stats. There's early calls, rotations, recommendations for positioning and and other subtle stuff that could well have been helping the clean players along. Any change in the potential performance envelope of a team requires reassessment. If KQLY and Superfighter had just plain left the teams and the rosters shuffled a bit with the same four players still on each roster then a re-invite would be appropriate. But as it stands, old results and performance can only ever by questioned.

2014-12-04 02:42

8 replies

yeah, kennyS e.g. is shit. he only got perfect calls from KQLY to hit his shots.

2014-12-04 02:58

7 replies

If you don't know how the game works, don't act a fool.

2014-12-04 03:03

5 replies

just sumarized you.

2014-12-04 03:04

No, you used hyperbole and exaggeration. Neither of which get you anywhere in life. Unless you have breasts.

2014-12-04 03:07

And are a female*

2014-12-04 03:55

Have you watched m0e stream?

2014-12-04 03:56

Who has..?

2014-12-04 03:58

KQLY did not have wallhacks. Also KennyS made some hella awesome clutches. No KQLY to help him there.

2014-12-04 09:48

yeah but how is mouz not worthy... the player that got them DQd was not even on their roster :D

2014-12-04 11:14

Mouz could have been worthy if they had been invited, the only problem is that the banned player helped them qualified instead.

2014-12-04 11:17

Holy shit good logic on HLTV. +1

Pyth smells

2014-12-04 02:35

Better late than never?

rip

2014-12-04 02:37

you can cheat but follow the rules?

While mousesports actively played with and used a cheater in the qualification, Titan and Epsilon were invited to the League. Neither of them had to play for the invite and never played in any qualification matches and therefore our disqualification rule for cheating does not apply in this case. Invited because of their performances with cheaters on their team. Nice logic there, ESL.

Although there's certainly semantic gray area because of the "taint" of cheating, I think their logic could abstractly pass since they have no way to lay the onus of proof on the teams when they were not using their service to qualify. ESL wouldn't technically be responsible for banning every player who was VAC banned on matchmaking if they had no way of knowing. Think of it like baseball, a player might be stripped of his sponsorships, his chance to the Hall of Fame, and his contract into the National League due to steroid abuse, but be invited to play in the Nippon Professional Baseball League with no cross-jurisdiction. And no I don't have a good real example I'm just brainstorming :P

2014-12-04 02:50

better teams --> more viewers --> profit

2014-12-04 02:44

Name better teams with bigger fan base to take the spot. I bet you will say 3DMAX :) but I'm sorry, their fan base is puny compared to the french teams, so your argument is invalid

2014-12-04 09:15

You missed his point

2014-12-04 13:41

so pkd DQed from eps finals?

2014-12-04 02:55

Have fnacit been already banned by ESL?

Banned for what? an ignorant community?

2014-12-04 09:50

cheating

2014-12-04 10:46

2014-12-04 14:52

2014-12-04 03:16

Does Epsilon even have a team? Their lineup is an absolute mess and Scream said in an interview they had 0 motivation to train, since Titan is likely to poach one of their players.

2014-12-04 03:50

Who got vacced on mouz?

smn played a match for them in qualifiers.

2014-12-04 08:02

What the actual fuck ESL, Mouz withdrew from the tournament and did everything right and this is how you treat them? Seriously.. fuck. Invite them for christ sake.

2014-12-04 04:05

bullsh*t the achievments of titan and epsilon are with a hacker, so the invite for being "qualified" teams has to be nulled

2014-12-04 04:21

Hurts even more when Mouz is shut out because of a few rounds that were out of their control.

2014-12-04 06:49

what if a player has a vacban in another game?

2014-12-04 07:52

2014-12-04 08:09

Either they take in mouz and the 2 others, or else they take in none.

2014-12-04 08:24

+1 Mouz beat better teams in the qualifiers with their full roster after they used smn as a stand-in. Does that not mean the remaining 4, sorry, I mean the remaining 5 as in an actual team, unlike Epsilon and Titan, have lots of potential?

2014-12-04 21:42

i all read in that statement is "we just wanted to fuck over mouz"

2014-12-04 08:37

"ESL review cheating rules", "NiP exit ESL Pro League" Hmmmm

2014-12-04 09:49

Poor mousesports :( First Dreamhack don't even invite them for the qualifier and now we have this bullshit from ESL.

2014-12-04 10:45

"...we still think that, even without the now-banned players, both teams have lots of potential and deserve an invite to the League." Who you think has potential shouldn't be a reason at all.