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The biggest news in recent Counter Strike: Global Offensive is yet one more thing impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s not all that’s been happening in the world of CS:GO, as a cheating scandal has also seen punishments handed down. Here’s some of the latest news.
ESL One Rio canceled
ESL One Rio is one of Brazil’s biggest eSports events. But in a joint decision by the ESL, formerly known as the Electronic Sports League, and Valve, ESL One Rio was canceled due to the coronavirus.
This event already had its schedule altered once – it was originally scheduled to take place in May. It was then moved to take place in November 2020, with what was planned to be a doubled prize pool of $2 Million.
ESL released the following statement:
“Together with Valve, we had to make the tough but safe decision to cancel the ESL One Rio Major 2020 due to the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked through several alternative options down to the last hour to make the Major a reality, but ultimately have to face the fact that the global situation currently does not allow for a Major to take place. While Valve is currently not able to say when and how Majors will return, as soon as they do we’ll work to bring the Major to Rio. New dates will be announced once a return for an in-arena Major is safe for everyone involved. All purchased tickets remain fully valid or can be refunded upon request.”
The next ESL event is scheduled as IEM New York, which will take place online next month with a $250,000 prize pool.
Valve speaks on coaches cheating
For about two weeks, teams and coaches have been speaking out about a long-used method in CS:GO matches that creates a disadvantage for the opponent. Teams had been taking advantage of a bug that allowed them to view enemy teams as a spectator.
Valve punished a number of rule-breakers, including MIBR, mousesports, FURIA and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Valve is letting third-party investigators take a deeper look before handing down further verdicts on this scandal.
A number of coaches were banned as part of this scandal, too. That list includes Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen, Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia, Erik “AKIMOV” Akimov, Aset “Solaar” Sembiyev, Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira, Faruk “pita” Pita, Allan “Rejin” Petersen, Ivan “F_1N” Kochugov, Henrique “rikz” Waku, Arthur “prd” Resende, Bruno “ellllll” Ono and Pedro “peu” Lopes.