BLAST bar Victory Zigzag coach from Fall Showdown following cheating ban

26-9-2023 11:11

Ivan "⁠Hardwell⁠" Alekseev was supposed to stand in for the ESIC-suspended Joel "⁠joel⁠" Holmlund until he received a FACEIT ban for cheating.

bubble has had enough of the controversy surrounding Victory Zigzag, saying the Showdown will be his last event with them

Victory Zigzag will not be allowed to use Hardwell as their stand-in at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, BLAST has confirmed to Dust2.dk.

The decision comes after Hardwell received a ban for cheating on his FACEIT account on Saturday. The Russian coach denies that he had cheated and seems to claim someone else was responsible, according to another member of the team, Kamen "⁠bubble⁠" Kostadinov.

Hardwell was announced as the stand-in for joel following the Esports Integrity Commission's (ESIC) decision to suspend the 19-year-old Swede over allegations of him engaging in match-fixing in multiple instances earlier this year.

Ex-GODSENT player joel suspended by ESIC over match-fixing allegations*

The coach's FACEIT ban seems to have put the final nail in the team's coffin, as bubble now says to HLTV.org that the BLAST Showdown will be his last tournament with the team.

The rest of the lineup has yet to comment on the situation. Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz has only confirmed to Dust2.dk that Victory Zigzag will use Mikkel "⁠lund⁠" Lund at the Showdown, which will kick off on October 4 and see the controversial squad face heavy favorites ENCE in the opening round.

Ooft. Team implode incoming

2023-09-26 11:12

6 replies

stavn's 2nd brother ?

2023-09-26 11:22

4 replies

416Olsk robbed by this??

2023-09-26 11:30

3 replies

robbed of an era :(

2023-09-26 12:32

ong blast is stupid

2023-09-26 13:10

416olsk besty swedish yet robbed by victory-chig-chag

2023-09-26 13:52

Why BLAST haven't banned them yet?????

2023-09-26 12:29

LMAO

kekw

ban bubble too

SHOCKING

2023-09-26 11:13

i thought matchfixers support eachother

2023-09-26 11:15

2 replies

Matchfixers. Strong together

2023-09-26 12:07

well, it was their team isn't it?

2023-09-26 13:05

they should actually bar the whole team while they are at it.

Just disqualify the entire team for gods sake

It is around the corner I reckon

2023-09-26 11:44

joke team with joke name

2023-09-26 11:16

initials are V Z and the team has russian background coincidence?

2023-09-26 14:47

ofc not but noone care as we can see, sad AF

1 reply

exactly

2023-09-26 14:48

oops unfortunate for VictoryZigZag hope they can play with standin

rip number one dj ever

2023-09-26 11:19

"The Russian coach denies that he had cheated and seems to claim someone else was responsible, according to another member of the team, Kamen "⁠bubble⁠" Kostadinov." Clara logged in to Hardwell's PC Clara's ghost is unrelenting

2023-09-26 11:20

Clara lol, havent heard that name in a looong time

2023-09-26 12:06

same here, never heard of ever again since that fateful day

2023-09-26 12:11

Whos clara tho?

2023-09-26 23:08

youtube.com/watch?v=KMjar0UdxFY

2023-09-27 00:44

Lmao what a nostalgic name

2023-09-26 13:22

Clarsaken the goat herself

2023-09-27 02:45

why are they still allowed to play bro wtf😭😭😭

2023-09-26 11:21

2023-09-26 15:29

He just should DJing ,shouldnt come to CS

2023-09-26 11:24

Man, everyone knows they are cheating, yet they were still allowed to play. You think they could actually beat team like big on ancient and so on. And why do they think that most bookies banned them...The whole roster needs a ban

2023-09-26 11:25

except mertz, he is the only one here that doesnt seem shady

2023-09-26 23:09

this is just plain russophobia. FREE KITTYTM

ahahahha +1

2023-09-26 14:31

Wtf just ban the team are they even allowed more than one stand-in?

2023-09-26 11:28

"The Team’s roster shall consist of up to five (5) starting Players, two (2) substitute Players and a Coach. Coaches may be used as an extra substitute if required."

2023-09-26 12:14

+1 WTF IS THIS BS

2023-09-26 13:19

How the fuck are they allowed to keep their place? The man just got banned and what doesn't say that he used to cheat during the games that made them get there? Nice casual 5k euro for cheating. JUSTICE FOR 416OLSKROKEN

2023-09-26 11:31

Just give the spot to 416Olsk, wtf is this BLAST, come on. Why they left them play with a stand-in on this situation ffs.

2023-09-26 11:35

wtf is blast doing????? How they are allowed to play???

2023-09-26 11:33

Even if they were to replace him with someone else, hasn't he still helped the team get there in the first place? If a member of the team is banned, shouldn't their spot be removed completely? This should be a collective punishment as the team (even if only one member) cheated and the rest of them used that opportunity.

2023-09-26 11:36

9 replies

not only 1 member but 2 to beat the teams they did even online seems like something real fishy was going on

5 replies

Yes, but cheating is way worse than the alleged match-fixing IMO, but I agree!

2023-09-26 11:57

Match fixing is a form of cheating. They're both equally bad and for the same reason, the diminish the integrity of the game.

2023-09-26 16:05

Yes, but one is banned and one is under interrogation

2023-09-26 16:08

I see, you weren't speaking in general, you were making a direct comparison. My bad friend

2023-09-26 16:11

>seems like lmao when a team with no future players who haven't played any cs for years destroying BIG, 1WIN, MOUZ, Sprout etc out of nowhere it was the most obvious BS LMAO

2023-09-26 12:49

That would only make sense if he was caught cheating in the qualifier, which he wasn't.

2023-09-26 12:17

But wouldn't that argument also work against removing him right now? If he didn't cheat in the qualifier, shouldn't he be allowed to continue play?

2023-09-26 13:32

Seems like no rule established or reached at that point yet so blast cannot make any rushed decision, at least for now

2023-09-26 13:24

expected from russians..

2023-09-26 11:37

+9999

2023-09-26 13:01

so VZ came in, disrupted the scene with many upsets, and them implodes xD

2023-09-26 11:41

THANK YOU BLAST

2023-09-26 11:43

not sufficient. The team should be banned and replaced with 4160lsk

2023-09-26 14:25

Cheating in csgo tell me something new. Seems like no one even dont want to fix this problem same shit happening since csgo lounge days.

I think that the problem is so big and ubiquitous that it is practically insurmountable at this point and Valve prefers just to ignore it hoping that banning 1 obvious team in a couple of years would be enough, after Akuma got away with everything they've done I can no longer be surprised

2023-09-26 11:47

There was chance back in 2014/2015 when valve should have acted when fnatic was accused of cheating. And ''many'' pro/semi-pro players get banned. I think after that it got unfixable. And for casual players mm have been same shit too since csgo launched. Their fix was go play faceit/esea pugs and even in faceit/esea you can cheat but its harder. I remember watching when ko1n and hes friends streaming esea pugs with cheats. And i 100% agree with that akuma thing but no one can or dont want to do anything unless somehow someone gets vac ban or faceit ban.

2023-09-26 11:55

Floosha chetir?

2023-09-26 14:52

yes floosha chetir 99% sure

2023-09-26 18:06

how is this team even allowed to play any competition?

scum.

good

A ship will sail the way you name it.

XAXAXAX

2023-09-26 11:59

BAN THE WHOLE TEAM! NOW!

2023-09-26 12:12

Bubble and rest of bulgarians have match fixed more than 100 matches

2023-09-26 12:19

Time to go back to 32k/month with italian gf I guess

how are they still playing in the event after two of their players got banned??

2023-09-26 12:30

yeahh how?? hello blast, just kick this joke of a team. what is this competition seriously???

2023-09-26 12:47

Should have allowed the second team ,was it the Swedish mix?

2023-09-26 12:56

yeah, 416olsk or something like that with robiin

2023-09-26 14:59

Ofuckingcourse they knew hes cheating and they abused it to qualify, aint no way this random mix of old faggots could qualify without cheating 😑

2023-09-26 12:46

bro just ban the whole team

I would be very surprised if the players from the blast showdown all say they don't want to play VZ, and thats what actually gets them kicked, and not the fact 2 players have been banned for 2 very different and very damaging offenses.

2023-09-26 12:53

Wasted spot aff.

2023-09-26 12:55

ban this team.. ez

2023-09-26 13:02

what a gret team

2023-09-26 13:07

omegalul

Lucky the team isn’t removed from BLAST… they all knew about the radarhack obviously. We will see them get rekt without the cheating

2023-09-26 13:34

forsaken legacy

why always bubble has fishy teammates didnt one of his mates when he was with spyleader etc also got vacbanned?

2023-09-26 13:35

Lmao

2023-09-26 13:36

Clown world

2023-09-26 13:39

Genius

2023-09-26 13:45

they replaced match thrower with a cheater? wow that is incredible

2023-09-26 13:53

Sorry but lol

2023-09-26 14:20

why so many dogs in this scene? is it that hard to be a good person?

2023-09-26 14:26

being a good person is a thankless task

2023-09-26 14:49

...It's honestly so messy that in a way it goes all the way back to being impressive. Inb4 the stand-in goes word.exe too...

2023-09-26 14:37

trash team, only decent player there is mertz. He should join sprout after w0nderful is brought by FaZe

2023-09-26 14:38

just disqualify the whole team, 1 accused matchfixer and 1 banned cheater, it is ridiculous

Of course little old bubble had no idea he had 2 cheaters/fixers on his team. Surely he’s innocent and had no part in this.

2023-09-26 15:27

it was probably his big brother using skinchanger at a cafe #freehardwell

2023-09-26 15:28

d 0gs

2023-09-26 15:31

Blast dont care about their tournamentsx xD

2023-09-26 15:41

"bubble has had enough of the controversy surrounding Victory Zigzag, saying the Showdown will be his last event with them" 10/10 bubble you can have a career in comedy when you're done fixing

2023-09-26 15:50

Just kick the team/org!! Please for once!! This is ridiculous... Orgs invite players with super shady backgrounds and super shady deals... this keeps happening because it's only the players that get fu**ed, the orgs need to take this responsability too! Why would an org invite Joel in the first place, and then a guy that's cheats to replace him, which obvious someone had some suspicious before.... And the same org will be allowed to participate in the event... wtf?!?!? just kick that team from events, fine them! because cheating needs to be fined and matchfixing the same sh*t.... If an org has a cheater and didn't kicked him herself, just kick that org from all tournments, i bet that you wont see orgs inviing shady players anymore!

2023-09-26 16:01

bubble says.... :-)

2023-09-26 16:04

I mean, I guess it will be better for them to field lund than Hardwell, but like, how can you even support this team now? So many accusations, some of them confirmed already, jesus your coach is cheating on FACEIT, like how funny it even sounds... I hope this team splits apart really.

2023-09-26 16:17