Ian Smith, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC)’s commissioner, said today during HLTV’s weekly show HLTV Confirmed that both players and coaches have been caught stream-sniping.
Smith made a guest appearance on the ninth episode of HLTV Confirmed hours after the ESIC announced that 37 CS:GO coaches have been banned for using the coach spectating bug.
The commissioner said the ESIC received “perfectly factually substantiated” reports of members of teams (players or coaches) watching streams of their games while playing.
“We found that a hell of a lot of people were on the stream [during matches], players and coaches,” Smith said. “We’ve got something to say about that—fairly heavy stuff to say about it.”
It’s unclear how many coaches and players have stream-sniped, especially during this online era of CS:GO that started during the coronavirus pandemic. Smith said part of this investigation relies on evidence that “isn’t available” and that the ESIC doesn’t have the ability to investigate stream-sniping cases right now due to the commission’s heavy workload on the ongoing match-fixing investigation.
The CS:GO scene is already in a delicate situation with all of the head coaches who have been banned. Depending on the results of the other investigations, it’s unclear how many people, especially in the tier-two and tier-three scenes, will be found guilty.
