Valve and ESIC reach an agreement in the coaching bug case

The good news continues for the coaches who were banned by Valve and ESIC more than two years ago. The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) revealed a few hours ago to Dust2.us that it reached an agreement with Valve regarding the coaches banned for using the spectator bug.

Recall that Valve had been unwilling to accept any appeals from organizations, coaches, and ESIC regarding this issue. They were simply vertical in their decision, and there seemed to be no going back. However, this has changed in the last few hours, and they have agreed.

ESIC and Valve reach an agreement regarding coach bans

As we mentioned earlier, coaches Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira, Alessandro “Apoka” Marcucci, and Anton “ToH1o” Georgiev themselves posted on their social networks that Valve had removed their bans earlier this week. This month after the ESIC accepted their appeals, Valve was still unwilling to budge.

Guerri was suspended from the highest level CS:GO competitive scene, that is, the Majors, until 2024, but he is now free of this bread and can lead FURIA in both the RMR of the Americas and the major itself if FURIA gets the ticket, of course.

ESIC Commissioner Ian Smith told Dust2.us:

“The bottom line is that where a successful appeal (in whole or in part) is based on demonstrating that the coach did not or could not abuse the bug in some or all of the rounds that contributed to their ESIC demerit points, Valve will consider commuting the relevant element of that coach’s Major ban. To be clear, Valve does not consider ESIC discounts granted for early admission of guilt or assistance with our investigation as a valid reason to reduce the Major ban. So far, Valve has reduced or removed the Major bans of three trainers based on our appeal findings.”

Valve gives the thumbs down

As we can see, Valve is willing to re-evaluate the bans in case a CS:GO, coach files an appeal to the ESIC and proves that he did not abuse the spectator bug. This means that the esports watchdog (ESIC) will be free to issue the next wave of bans to coaches and re-investigate new cases where they are presumed to have abused the spectator bug.

Finally, Smith said:

“We wanted this issue resolved and agreed before we issued the outstanding trainer bug cases, and we have now agreed with Valve to proceed with the remaining cases.”

Given that the ESIC organization has struggled to maintain community support and trust due to several high-profile bugs in recent years, this adjustment can be considered a significant victory.

Header: ESIC