EMIYA banned on FACEIT for cheating; Rocket admit to speaking with coach in RMR qualifier

Concerns regarding Rocket playing at the Americas RMR have been raised following the ban.

Damian "⁠EMIYA⁠" Boulware, formerly known as droid, received a two-year ban on FACEIT for cheating on Monday, resulting in his team, Rocket, being disqualified from ESL Challenger League and the ESL Challenger Melbourne closed qualifier. An ESL source told Dust2.us that ESL stands by the determination made by their anti-cheat and anti-cheat team.

EMIYA previously received a permanent ban on FACEIT for cheating in March 2021 on his "DROID" account, a ban he alleged was a false positive despite an unsuccessful appeal to FACEIT, but he was allowed to return in March 2023 on a different account as the two-year appeal window passed and permanent platform bans were sunset following ESL's merger with FACEIT.

His second cheating ban comes less than two weeks ahead of Rocket's appearance in Monterrey, Mexico for the PGL Major Copenhagen Americas RMR. However, as EMIYA has not been banned by Valve Anti-Cheat and the Counter-Strike developer does not mirror platform bans from third-party organizers, nothing disqualifies him from attending the RMR unless Valve chooses to enforce a catch-all disqualification clause in their rulebook.

"Valve also reserves the right to disqualify any player, team, broadcaster, commentator, or producer in its sole discretion. The TO will immediately disqualify such person or team upon notice from Valve. Any event winnings by such player or such Banned Team will be forfeit. No player from a Banned Team will be eligible to compete in the event with any other team."
- Valve Major Supplemental Rulebook

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Liquid & M80 make Americas RMR, NRG eliminated at end of qualifier

Rocket player Ahmed "⁠ayy⁠" Mahmoud publicly stated, and confirmed privately to HLTV, that he will not attend the RMR if the team is still given the chance to play as they "don't deserve that slot." He added that Blake "⁠Elk⁠" Swinson also does not have his passport, meaning Rocket would have to play with their coach if a player was missing as they don't have a substitute registered.

ayy also revealed to HLTV that Rocket's coach, former Akuma member Alexandr "⁠Psycho⁠" Zlobin, communicated with the team during their Americas RMR closed qualifier matches, something expressly forbidden in the rulebook.

ayy stated that Psycho "watched our POV during a few of the games and would just give little adjustments" in the M80 and BOSS matches, at the least, and that he was unsure whether the coach contributed against Cloud 10 or Carpe Diem. He said Rocket stopped using Psycho after an opponent warned them that it was against the rules.

A similar account of the situation was given to Dust2.us, with Matthew "⁠nero⁠" Seymour admitting to the American publication that he knew what Rocket did was wrong and stated there was "no excuse."

nero also alleged that Rocket were not the only team in the closed qualifier to use their coach in such a manner, with additional information provided by other sources to Dust2.us raising the possibility of a wider integrity issue, but those facts will be difficult to verify as ChallengerMode and PGL allegedly did not enforce usage of a TO-operated TeamSpeak for the North America closed qualifier.

Rocket's admitted violation of the coach communication rule and EMIYA's cheating ban leaves large questions hanging around their participation at the Americas RMR. The team beat NRG 2-0 in the final round of the Swiss stage of the qualifier to secure their spot, eliminating Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's new team from Major contention, but EMIYA's cheating ban naturally calls into question the integrity of these results.

HLTV reached out to EMIYA and PGL for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.