Lifting of peacemaker’s suspension officialy confirmed by ESIC

Following the public statement by Imperial Esports Head Coach Luis “⁠peacemaker⁠” Tadeu, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has confirmed that his suspension has been lifted and that he’s not been found guilty of using the free-roam spectator bug. 

After peacemaker revealed his official statement last week, ESIC followed up by releasing its own final determination in his case, confirming that his suspension has been lifted with immediate effect. 

The decision has been made after the Brazilian coach was banned from attending the recent PGL Major Antwerp 2022. 

Guilty of staying quiet

While the ESIC’s official statement confirmed that the sanctions placed upon peacemaker earlier in May were lifted, the representatives of the commission clarified that the 34-year-old coach was not cleared of the guilt completely. Based on the arguments provided by peacemaker, which reportedly included the testimony of an independent expert hired by peacemaker, as well as character evidence, ESIC’s Integrity Commissioner Ian Smith lowered his sentence to 22 days of suspension.

Peacemaker already served this sentence under the provisional suspension placed on him on May 5. The fact that he missed the Major in Antwerp was also reportedly taken into consideration when revisiting his punishment. 

ESIC’s final determination reported that peacemaker admitted to violating one of the articles of ESIC’s Code of Conduct, which requires coaches to report any bug occurrence during official matches. Therefore, despite not intentionally using the spectator bug to cheat, peacemaker’s decision not to inform relevant authorities about the bug was still punishable and resulted in said 22 days of suspension. 

ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith commented in the final determination: 

“In determining the sanction, I was mindful that Mr. Tadeu missed the Antwerp Major as a result of PGL and Valve’s decision to suspend him from the event and, consequently, whilst conduct of the kind Mr. Tadeu engaged in should ordinarily result in a higher sanction of more than 22 days suspension, in these particular circumstances, I believe 22 days is appropriate and proportionate.” 

Spectator bug charges

Peacemaker was provisionally suspended by ESIC for using the free-roam CS:GO spectator bug, which is considered the “more serious” version of the bug. Based on ESIC’s investigation, peacemaker encountered the bug in a match against Imperial in 2018 when coaching Heroic. Along with peacemaker, two other coaches were charged with sanctions for the alleged use of the less serious, static spectator bug — Team Spirit coach Sergey “hally” Shavayev and 9z coach Rafael “zakk” Fernandes.

ESIC further clarified that the original ‘Notices of Charges’ that were delivered to the coaches were not the commission’s final charges, but rather notices of intended sanctions that grant all noticed individuals a window opportunity to reply and defend themselves. That’s also why ESIC’s original report did not specify the exact final sanctions for affected coaches.  

With peacemaker’s suspension having officially ended, he is free to lead his team Imperial at the upcoming IEM Dallas, set to run from May 30 to June 5.

Header: Valve/ESIC