ESIC lifts suspension of spirit coach Hally

The provisional suspension of Team Spirit coach Sergey “hally” Shavaev was lifted by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) in early September, according to the organization and the coach’s lawyer Dejan Minić. The 29-year-old Russian is allowed to continue coaching. 

Coach hally can again attend official CS:GO competitions and do his job just like he used to. He was suspended for some time for running into the static version of the infamous coaching bug for a round in a match against Espada three years ago. In May this year, he was suspended along with Luis “Peacemaker” Tadeu and Rafael “zakk” Fernandes, with the cases being investigated by ESIC.

Three coaches suspended

The Russian coach run into the static variant of the bug in a round of a CIS Rising League 2019 Season 3 game against Dracarys while he was coaching at Espada. 9z coach zakk used the same variant of the bug while Imperial coach peacemaker used the free roam variant.

The timing of the suspension was rather controversial, as all three coaches were banned by Valve and PGL from attending the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 three days ahead of the start of the tournament, leaving the teams coachless.

Hally’s ban lifted

Hally is the latest of the three coaches to have his suspension lifted. Peacemaker and zakk were found “innocent” earlier, and both appear to have produced plenty of evidence to prove their innocence.

Hally’s lawyer, Dejan Minić, explained in an interview with Dexterto that the coach appealed the ESIC’s decision on July 1, arguing that the penalty was too harsh and his only fault was not reporting the bug – which apparently several coaches have not done.

On appeal, it was argued that Hally could not see any opposing players during the pistol round in which he encountered the static bug and that the strategy Espada used in the round was the same “standard” strategy they had used in previous games.

Is ESIC still working on other cases?

Minić further said that ESIC only responded two months after submitting the appeal and that the supervisory authority has still not explicitly stated that the complaint was accepted. However, the fact that Hally’s ban was lifted after four months — as opposed to the usual five-month ban — shows that some leniency has been shown.

Following multiple successful appeals filed by several other CS:GO coaches affected by the bug, ESIC adjusted how concessions are applied to sentences and modified how demerit points are calculated. However, Valve rejected ESIC’s appeal to implement the same changes, which resulted in the major ban on CS:GO coaches remaining unchanged.

Header: Sergey “hally” Shavaev / ESIC