3 'Counter-Strike' players banned for cheating during qualifiers

The qualifiers for the next Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major tournament are underway and multiple teams vying for spots in the $1 million competition have had players banned for cheating.

Over the weekend, three different Counter-Strike players were banned for cheating during the qualifiers for the ELeague Boston Major. KerZe of Team Optimistic and Sodah of Planetten OG were both banned in the middle of matches on Saturday, and Ciocardau of Invictus Aquilas was banned following a match against Team Dignitas.

Here is the moment Sodah was banned (you can see it happen in the bottom left corner of the screen), which happened to be after one of the commentators made note that Sodah appeared to have knowledge of where the enemy team was approaching from.

It's likely that Sodah was banned for using a wall hack, which is a method of cheating that allows you to see enemies through walls. Before Sodah was banned, the players were talking about cheating on live mics during warmups — not a very smart thing to do.

Here is the moment that KerZe was banned, which occurred right after KerZe shot an enemy through a wall (which you can see in the kill feed in the top right corner). The reaction from the commentators is priceless.

The third player to get hit with a ban, Ciocardau, was banned after winning a match against Team Dignitas, as shared by Team Dignitas player Christian "LoWel" Antoran on Twitter.

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Here's a clip of some damning evidence that Ciocardau may have been using an aim-assist cheat.

The two players banned in the middle of matches were caught by the match organizer's anti-cheating software, according to a statement posted on Reddit. The third player, Ciocardau, was banned after staff reviewed their gameplay.

The statement noted that some of the match results were overturned and the affected teams rescheduled.

H/T Kotaku