9z’s founder starts a hashtag movement to protest against the suspension of CS:GO coach

Zakk will most likely not be able to coach his players during PGL Antwerp Major.
Photo via PGL

Francisco Postiglione, founder of CS:GO team 9z, has confirmed on Twitter that his head coach Rafael “zakk” Fernandes has been suspended by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for allegedly abusing the coach spectator bug in 2018.

Recommended Videos

The suspension comes just three days before the start of PGL Antwerp Major, which 9z qualified for in a heroic fashion, going from 0-2 to 5-2. ESIC banned 37 coaches in 2020 for allegedly abusing the coach spectator bug that allowed them to place their camera anywhere on the map and recently discovered that were different versions of the bug.

Postiglione hopes that his movement will result in zakk coaching at the Major. “How can it be that Valve bans my coach days before the Major for something he did in 2018,” the founder of 9z said.

“They prohibited him [zakk] from entering the practice room at the tournament and canceled his flight as punishment. Please let’s write messages to PGL with the hashtag ‘FreeZakk’.”

At the moment, there’s no video of zakk and the spectator bug, but that should be revealed by ESIC during the course of the weekend. The Brazilian coach was coaching Luminosity Gaming in 2018 and has been working with 9z since March 2020. Zakk most notably led Immortals to finish runners-up at PGL Kraków Major in 2017.

“It looks like I’m banned from an investigation that was concluded 14 months ago but they decided to notify three days before the Major,” zakk wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have the memory to remember two rounds (one, I’m sure I was away and I came back at the time of the live).”

ESIC is due to issue almost 100 sanctions ahead of the Major and it’s known that three coaches have been provisionally suspended already. This may include zakk and Spirit coach Sergey “hally” Shavayev.


Dot Esports is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article What to do if CS2 crashes mid game
Italy with two players shooting each other with a smoke behind them
Read Article Vitality demolish C9 to put themselves two matches from defending Counter-Strike Major title
Apex screaming to the fans in the Royal Arena at the Copenhagen CS2 Major.
Read Article XQc finally redeems himself in Counter-Strike with stunning Deagle ace
xQc smiling with his thumb up
Related Content
Read Article What to do if CS2 crashes mid game
Italy with two players shooting each other with a smoke behind them
Read Article Vitality demolish C9 to put themselves two matches from defending Counter-Strike Major title
Apex screaming to the fans in the Royal Arena at the Copenhagen CS2 Major.
Read Article XQc finally redeems himself in Counter-Strike with stunning Deagle ace
xQc smiling with his thumb up
Author
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.