ESIC will return to the study of coaching bug with two new investigations

According to the Dexerto portal, ESIC will soon return to the large-scale coaching bug scandal, resuming two investigations. It is expected that at least 52 coaches are under the gun, who used the bug to varying degrees, but remained untouched after the first wave of bans in the fall of 2020.

Both investigations have been ongoing for some time as ESIC tries to investigate all cases of abuse of the bug, which number in the hundreds. The first of these two investigations could result in sanctions against 52 coaches, although potential penalties have yet to be approved.

New momentum for reopening the investigation came after cooperating parties grew increasingly unhappy with the prospect of coaches who could be banned from the upcoming PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Several people outside of ESIC have expressed a desire for the matter to be resolved before the start events to ensure a sufficient level of fairness in the tournament.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, one of the reasons for the difference between the start of the investigation and its continuation was the fact that there were several bugs in the game that allowed the coaches to access different ways to control the players of the opposing team. Although they gave the same result, they functioned slightly differently, and so when the automated violation search was implemented, it was coded only in such a way as to find the main bug, which led to the first wave of bans.

Decision-making is complicated by, among other things, the lack of evidence of the transfer of information to players that mentors may have received in a dishonest way.

Another problem with the investigation was the assessment of the various bugs and how they were used in each individual case. Without access to call recordings, determining the extent of abuse has proven difficult, and with a number of calls to the process from previous bans and other investigations, it was important to factor this into any potential penalties.

Recall that in the fall of 2020, ESIC banned 37 coaches who were caught using a bug with a camera. Some well-known specialists have been sanctioned, including F_1N⁠, RobbaN, pita, HUNDEN, Twista and ⁠ruggah. However, later on, more and more evidence appeared in the community against other trainers who did not make the final list. In particular, a former coach of Cloud9 was recently accused of abusing the bug, who also admitted to using a game bug.