Friday, October 19th has not been a good day for the OpTic Gaming Indian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) division of OpTic India, as Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat was reportedly caught using hack during matches at the eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals. OpTic India was then removed from the $100,000 LAN event as a result and the entire roster of OpTic India has been released from the organization.
The reported cheating by forsaken took place during his team's match against Revolution in the Group C elimination match. Tournament officials paused the match for a period of 20 minutes when it was then revealed that the Tournament officials had found forsaken to be cheating by using hacks on his PC during the event. The team was then immediately removed from the eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals and forsaken was sent home on a flight soon after, according to CSGO2ASIA.
It has been confirmed by Extremesland Officials that @OpTicIndia player ‘foresaken’ has been caught with hacks on his PC. The team has been dismissed from the tournament immediately and the player will be sent home on the next flight. No further statements from OptiC at this time
— CSGO2ASIA (@CSGO2ASIA) October 19, 2018
A suspicious clip of forsaken during the match looks to be what caused the investigation into the PC utilized by forsaken during the match by tournament officials in addition to the activity of forsaken being flagged B5 anti-cheat platform that was being used at the event.
Footage of forsaken refusing to allow a tournament referee to check his PC has also found its way on social media furthering incriminating the cheating activity of forsaken.
forsaken was trying to refuse the referee’s check #eXTREMESLAND2018
— ??? (@liuxinwei0102) October 19, 2018
via Weibo@alex??? pic.twitter.com/gC5yn005n5
According to a report by HLTV, forsaken was removed from the lineup and that the rest of the team's players had no knowledge of forsaken using hacks during the event.
"The player caught with hacks has been released from the organisation, we do not tolerate anything like this," said Jesal Parekh, OpTic Gaming's International Development Director. "An official statement will be released soon by the organization, but I want to make it very clear that the other four players had no knowledge of this and would never have agreed to even play if there was even the slightest hint of it."
However, the alleged lack of knowledge by the rest of the OpTic India CS:GO roster did not stop OpTic Gaming from announcing that the rest of the lineup had been released from the organization and that OpTic India will be pursuing other competitive options.
— OpTic India (@OpTicIndia) October 19, 2018
Due to the use of hacks by forsaken during the LAN event of the eXTREMESLAND 2018 Asia Finals, the OpTic India CS:GO team will unfortunately now be looking for an entire new roster to compete in the future.
(cover photo courtesy of ESL India Premiership)
