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ESL Counter-Strike VAC ban rule change means that dream3r, emilio, and Sf will be able to compete

Zorine Te

Update 4:23PM PST: ESL has published a formal statement in response to the backlash the new rule has received. The full statement is as follows.

As there is currently significant discussion and also misunderstanding around the topic of ESL’s policy in regards to cheaters, we want to clarify our position and direction on the topic.

For the past 15 years ESL has used it’s own anti-cheat technology (ESL Wire) in our matchmaking, ladders and tournaments. It operates an additional layer of security on top of Valve’s VAC system and has been important for guaranteeing the integrity of our competitions. Our policy regarding players caught cheating by our systems has always been the same, namely a 2 year ban from participating in any ESL competitions, which we adopted based on industry best practices in many professional sports.

This policy of a two year ban was also recently adopted by ESEA, which had previously used only 1 year ban. All of these changes are meant to create consistency for all future bans across all platforms throughout CSGO. So that VAC bans can also be included in this consistent overall framework, we therefore recently updated our competitive rulebook to bring our treatment of them in line with these policies.

The issue of how to best implement consistent and meaningful punishment for integrity violations of different forms & severity across different levels of competitions is however extremely complex and multifaceted, especially in the light of our ever growing industry.

We will consult with with players, teams, organizations and sports integrity experts such as ESIC on whether the existing policies are still adequate for professional play in Counter-Strike.

TL;DR

– We expanded our 15 year old policy of 2 years bans to include ESEA/VAC
– Our policies are not set in stone and we will work with relevant parties on optimization

The original story follows below.

The new rules mean previously VAC-banned players will be able to compete in IEM. (ESL)ESL has updated its Counter-Strike rulebook for its IEM, ESL One and ESL Pro League tournaments. The update adds (via hltv.org) a line pertaining to VAC bans.

The new rule reads as follows:

2.5 Publisher or ESIC Bans
The league administration reserves the right to refuse players who have standing bans from the game publisher to take part in Intel Extreme Masters tournaments.
Also, ESIC bans will be honored and translated into ESL bans.
CSGO VAC bans are specifically honored, but only until 2 years after they have been issued

This means that players who have been VAC banned will be able to participate in ESL’s tournaments, as long as two years have passed since the ban was issued. It’s worth noting that they won’t be able to play in Majors, as they are official Valve-supported events where the ban still applies.

The new rule means that players Joel “emilio” Mako (banned October 2014), Simeon “dream3r” Ganev (banned October 2014), Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian (banned November 2014), Gordon “Sf” Giry (banned November 2014), and Anil “cLy” Gülec (banned June 2014) will be able to compete in ESL One and EPL events.

DreamHack’s CS:GO director Marc Winther has responded to the rule change quite bluntly, so it looks like the players will still not be able to compete at DreamHack events.

The next ESL event is IEM Sydney, which will run May 3-7. The tournament will have a $200,000 prize pool, and teams SK Gaming, Astralis, OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan, and Renegades have been confirmed to compete.