ESL India Release Final Statement on OpTic Forsaken Cheating Scandal
By Zac Cameron ·
The tournament organizers have released their final statement on the matter and reveal their plans for resolving the situation.
After revelations that a member of the OpTic India CS: GO team was caught cheating at a LAN event earlier this month, ESL India has released a final statement on the matter and outlined their plans for rectifying the issues raised.
“We at ESL India have completed a thorough review of the recent incident regarding Nikhil “Forsaken” Kumawat and OpTic India at the ESL India Premiership Fall Season CS: GO Final and we would like to apologize that cheating could happen at this competition.”
“In accordance with a ruling by the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC), Kumawat stands banned for a length of 5 years,” the statement reveals. “This ban will prevent him from taking part in any and all ESL, Nodwin Gaming and other ESIC Partner Events up to October 25th, 2023.”
Final official statement by ESL India & @NodwinGaming!#Forsaken #CSGO #ESLIndiaPremiership pic.twitter.com/dxtqzhVf9m
— ESL India (@ESL_India) October 25, 2018
The statement goes on to outline how ESL India will be effectively replaying the Grand Finals again, in order to determine the true winner of the tournament and the qualification spot for the ESL Pro League Season 8 Asia playoffs.
“We were in close contact with ESL Global to revisit our processes and to make sure that upgraded standards are in place for the upcoming replay of the finals: 2ez Gaming (losing semi finalists to OpTic Gaming) will take on Slaughter Rage Army (losing finalists to OpTic),” they explained. “The winner of the best of 3 will represent India in the ESL Pro League Asia Finals.”
According to a report from HLTV.org, the matches will be played online from internet cafes, where ESL India admins will be overseeing the competition.
“ESL has established leading standards for global tournaments, and the ESL India team will now turn the lesson into an opportunity for the ESL India Premiership to further align standards to those of the global events,” concludes the statement.