The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and esports community as a whole were recently rocked by a major cheating scandal that saw former OpTic India (the Indian CS:GO division of OpTic Gaming) player Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawat be caught for cheating at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals LAN event. However, ESL India has taken to their Facebook channel to confirm that it has ruled that former OpTic CS:GO player forsaken had cheated with the use of hacks at a previous event. 

ESL India stated in its Facebook post that,  due to the proof gathered at the Zowie eXTREMESLAND ASIA Finals LAN event of the cheating performed by the CS:GO player, it had decided to launch an investigation into all 20 players who had competed in the ESL India Premiership Finale for any potential cheats on their hard drives. The tournament organizer went on to explain that it had discovered the same cheat program that the former OpTic CS:GO player in forsaken had used at the eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals on the SSD that forsaken had utilized at the ESL India Premiership Fall Finale. 

The organization announced that it had shared its discovery of the previous cheating conducted by forsaken with the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) and that it has deemed this offense by forsaken to be a level 4 offence under the ESIC Code of Conduct. The Commissioner of the ESIC will be conducting an independent investigation into the matter and is expected to deliver his results in the near future. 

OpTic India has since released forsaken and the rest of the CS:GO roster for the team following forsaken having been caught using hacks at the eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals. It has been reported that the team members of forsaken had no knowledge of the cheating by the player. At the time of this writing, it remains to be seen if ESL India will take any action regarding the final results of the ESL India Premiership Fall Finale where the team took home a first place finish and the $6,750 grand prize. 

(cover photo courtesy of OpTic Gaming)