This is quite possibly one of the most serious issues in ESports to date, let alone CS:GO ESports.Essentially what happened:
- SMN from Team Alternate is banned from ESEA due to cheating allegations, a week later takes VACation, but not before releasing a critical list of possible cheating suspects to HLTV.
- KQLY from Team Titan, is VACbanned by Valve
- SF from Team Epsilon is also VACbanned by Valve
These are all professional-level gamers, that have all been recently caught cheating using a possible workshop hack by Valve's anti-cheat system (VAC). These recent VACations come following a recent post on a popular CS forum that discussed the hack with no identifiable UI and no telltale signature aimbot/autofire/aimcorrection signs, making the hack very subtle. According to the forum, this has made the hack popular with professionals and useable even in LANs with referees monitoring player's screens live. An official post below in the sources states several other possible player's that may/may not be using similar hacks to improve their game.
Already 3 player's have been banned, and if the post is correct, more will follow. This will cause a massive shakeup in the Dreamhack Winter lineup, and new teams will possibly come through. Hopefully, the cheating allegations will be proven false, although at this rate it does seem that more player's will follow through.
Pro player's at the moment are currently selling their backpack's and cashing out. Their backpack's contain hundred's of valuable skins and knives (sometimes worth thousands), so the popular theory at the moment is that they are anticipating a ban, and attempting to sell all their virtual wares before they do.
ScreaM, a player from Epsilon, had his place taken by KQLY, and now KQLY has just been banned for cheating. I can just imagine how miffed he'd be.
For now though, the entire CS:GO pro scene stands at risk due to these recent allegations, and as ESports has much to prove, not a great overall look. So far Titan's and Epsilon's place at DHW have been revoked. Valve must be completely embarrassed at the moment, having this come through at such a nervous time near DHW.
Helpful stuff and Sources:
Reddit:
1.
http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/2mxh0l/sf_epsilon_esports_also_vac_banned_now/2.
http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/2mw8hb/kqly_vacbanned/3.
http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/2mwnag/welcome_visitors_from_rall_heres_what_you_need_to/4.
http://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/2mwnag/welcome_visitors_from_rall_heres_what_you_need_to/HLTV:
1.
http://www.hltv.org/blog/8946-cheating-issues-what-to-doDreamHack:
1.
http://www.dreamhack.se/dhw14/2014/11/21/dreamhack-winter-2014-last-call-qualifier-this-saturday/VACSTATUS TRACKER:https://vacstat.us/l/1871/686lulz:
http://i.imgur.com/1mCOAcn.jpgI would post more if I can scrounge up anything else.
