ESIC bans 4 CS2 players following long-running allegations

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has taken action over four CIS Counter-Strike players who were accused of cheating or match-fixing.

On Nov. 29, ESIC announced it has banned four players for “multiple breaches of the ESIC Anti-Corruption Code and significant evidence of suspicious and unusual betting on matches involving these players.” The individuals are Dmytro “SENSEi” Shvorak, Maksym “THRONE” Semenov, Artur “DarkS1DE” Kravchenko, and Danylo “nat1ve” Bakin, whose teams include Akuma, Project X, and Majesty. They are prohibited from participating in ESIC Member events for two years.

SENSEi became a main character in the “Akuma scandal” of 2021 in the StarLadder CIS RMR 2021, after Akuma performed suspiciously well and were accused of cheating and stream-sniping during the tournament. The event itself was poorly organized: No third-party anti-cheat programs were included, and TeamSpeak sessions weren’t recorded, which made the case tough to prove. Still, numerous teams and players became embroiled in the controversy, with CIS organizations even releasing an open letter to Valve asking for an investigation into Akuma in June 2021.

The investigation didn’t find solid proof of Akuma’s cheating, but in the meantime, another set of allegations surfaced. They were directed at former Akuma and Project X members for possible match-fixing, though among them, only SENSEi was banned today. He was banned alongside three MAJESTY members suspected of match-fixing at a Bulgarian LAN event in 2020, according to ESIC.

While it’s encouraging to see ESIC finally taking action over former Akuma and Project X members, the community is disappointed to see only SENSEi banned as of now. When the scandal was a huge talking point in the community over two years ago, other players from these rosters were also suspected to be involved, yet their bans are nowhere to be seen.