Not too long ago, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) dished out bans to plenty of coaches in the CS:GO scene. This had to do with a bug that let you spectate a match from a birds-eye view, giving you an advantage for your team. From some early bans on August 31 to looking more in depth afterwards, they came to a conclusion. They banned 37 coaches from across the scene, including former FaZe clan coach Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström.
However, just after the ban went live, RobbaN stood up and defended himself, posting a long response on Twitter.
My side of the bug abuse story
Read: https://t.co/aLKofBa94N
— Robert Dahlström (@FaZeRobbaN) September 28, 2020
In this, he stated that “I did not ask for this advantage and tried to get rid of this view before the match started. In the heat of the moment, I felt like the most fair decision was to mute my mic and not provide any info to my team, as I was stuck in that view and watched the match from this angle, which sucked as I couldn’t even say anything at all. I could not help my team.
For someone with an understanding of CS, you can see I’m not abusing this bug.” He furthermore explained how he immediately showed the bug to the people in charge, and didn’t use it but got into trouble for it anyway.
How did FaZe respond?
In this case, the organization responded respectfully, showing support for RobbaN.
We stand behind Robert. Upholding the integrity of competition means everything to us & we're glad an issue he brought up 3 years ago is finally being addressed, but his ban is entirely unwarranted given the facts. We’re disappointed in the process that led to this conclusion. https://t.co/HlXDoztfoE
— #FaZeUp (@FaZeUpdate) September 28, 2020
Saying themselves that they were “disappointed” in the results of the ban shows how they believe RobbaN’s statements. This support might be justified if the proof RobbaN said he had in his tweet was valid. But, even with the proof, the ban happened anyway to many coaches in the CS:GO community. Some coaches admitted to using the ban, but in this case it does seem that RobbaN and FaZe didn’t. Alas, this goes to show how hard the administrators are cracking down on any bug abuse in the competitive scene. While it doesn’t seem like the result will be changed for RobbaN, we are still waiting to see how the future of the league will be affected by this crackdown.
