The Esports Integrity Commission has officially announced sanctions against Team Spirit, 9z, and Imperial Esports team coaches for using the CS:GO tracker Bug.
Spirit coach Sergey “hally” Shavayev and 9z coach Rafael “zakk” Fernandes have been suspended due to a “static” audience bug. Hally was coaching Empada at the time, and zakk has reportedly used this bug twice with LG in 2018 and twice with 2020z in 9. Imperial team coach Luis “peacemaker” Tadeu was suspended for using the “free camera” error while coaching Heroic in 2018. No coach used the error more than two rounds.
ESIC announced on Thursday (May 5th) that sanctions will be imposed following its extensive investigation into abuse of the tracker error. During this investigation, ESIC looked at thousands of rounds using one of three variants of the tracker error. Three trainers were found to be using the "free roam" bug, the scariest of the variants, and they were temporarily banned. Now we know that one of these coaches is a mediator.
A May 5 statement from ESIC also stated that the three coaches participating in the PGL Antwerp Major were temporarily suspended for using the "more serious variants", but it was not clear whether this was the "free roam" variant or the "static" variant. Both 9z and Team Spirit acknowledged that their coaches were suspended on May 6 ahead of ESIC's final announcement.
Both 9z's coach and founder have questioned the date the penalty was imposed (pre-Major) since the bug was used in 2018, and ESIC reportedly concluded its investigation "14 months ago", according to coach zakk.
All three coaches will be suspended from all ESIC Member events for the period specified in the forthcoming Penalty Notice. PGL has confirmed that Hally, Zakk and Peacemaker have been banned from the Antwerp Major.