Team Spirit commented on the removal of Hally from PGL Major Antwerp 2022

The Russian esports organization Team Spirit commented on the removal of Hally from participation in PGL Major Antwerp 2022. The club questioned the authority of ESIC on social networks.

On May 5 at 15:05 CEST, the coach of our CS:GO roster received an official notification letter from ESIC, in which this organization accused him of using a bug with the coach's camera and notified him of the imposition of sanctions against him.

We are making this publication in order to draw the attention of the community and Valve to the activities of the ESIC organization and the consequences that this activity can lead to.

At the time of the incident, Hally was in his 4th month as a trainer, he did not know about the existence of the bug and did not intentionally try to cause it. This is the only point in his career that ESIC found with the coach camera bug, and it happened after the warmup when it was most likely to occur (the bug occurs after the death of a player the coach is watching).

In particular, the club raised questions about the competence of ESIC, which, according to Team Spirit, "justifies its existence by only attacking coaches who simply cannot defend themselves."

Now we would like to draw your attention to the actions of ESIC in connection with this situation. From a procedural point of view, neither Team Spirit nor hally know who ESIC are. We do not know who led this investigation and who made the decision on the punishment, who is this commissioner, whom they refer to in their letter. No one introduced us to their code, which they also constantly refer to. No tournament operator uses their code as an official document in their tournaments. Where the power of these unknown people, we also do not understand.

What has ESIC done for esports? They declare it their mission to fight for integrity and ethics in esports, but what have they really done? Did they somehow influence the problems with the fake matches? Problems with cheaters? Problems with the radar hack? No, they latched on to the coach cam bug because they are literally unable to solve the real problems of esports and simply justify their existence by only attacking coaches who simply cannot defend themselves. This is their only way to stay relevant in the industry, because they can't be useful in any other way. Notice also when they made their investigation public. The hally bug video they sent us was uploaded on October 26, 2020. And now, just a week before the start of the Major, they decided to remind about themselves, just to draw more attention to their activities.

Recall that an hour earlier, information appeared that the coaches of Team Spirit, 9z and Imperial Esports would miss PGL Major Antwerp 2022 — they were banned by ESIC. Information about the names of specialists who were caught using a coaching bug was shared by OverDrive.