There hasn’t been a cheating scandal this exciting since Tiger Woods. It’s been confirmed that professional CS:GO player Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian has used a 3rd party program which assists with aim. This was a roll on effect when a semi pro player Simon “smn” Beck was banned by ESEA, and Epslion player Gordon “SF” Giry.
KQLY is probably the highest profile player to be banned for hacking. He plays, or rather played for one of the top CS:GO teams, Titan. Since the accusation, Titan started their own investigation and found he had used the program for a week outside of competitive play but they’re no longer able to trust him.
KQLY released a statement on his facebook page which he apologies, and admits his career is now over.
This has cast a dark cloud over CS:GO in the lead up to one of the major tournaments of the year, Dreamhack Winter 2014 which is happening this weekend in Stockholm, Sweden. People are now questioning who, if anyone, has been using similar programs to this in the competitive scene, and possibly other majors. Apparently Dreamhack are ramping up their checks etc to prevent this kind of stuff from happening. Even though both Titan and Epslion have booted these “hax0rzing fgts”, both teams have been booted from competing for the $250,000 prize.
As you can imagine, the community has jumped all over this news. Duncan “Thooorin” Shields has said in a video posted to YouTube “It’s a cheat that doesn’t even have an extreme effect, unless you really abuse it” he said. “It has layers to it where it can just give you a slight advantage in aiming. So if you’re already one of the best players in the world, it will make it so you just look like you’re having your best game. It won’t even seem like you’re hacking and that was an impossible movement.”
Everything is now coming into question – every unbelievable shot, amazing play, and win.
One of the highest profile players, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist of the world’s top team Fnatic has been thrown into the hacking spotlight with accusations flying in from NIP Coach Faruk “pita” Pita. He posted to twitter “it’s a fkn disgrace to the community and every hard working player if @csgo_dev put flusha thru to play Dreamhack. Its obvious as it can be”.
He then continued the allegations with a follow up YouTube clip which he says supports his claim. The community jumped on the bandwagon and started pointing out other clips that they claim is obvious evidence.
It will be interesting to see how far this goes.