Shanghai Major organizer bans CS2 squad from RMR for using banned coach

Perfect World has today disqualified Russian Counter-Strike 2 squad PARAVISION from the European RMR after it was revealed the competitive team had their Valve-banned coach present during their qualifier match earlier last week.

PARAVISION made it through a tough closed qualifier for the Shanghai Major RMRs on Aug. 23 with their win over GamerLegion 2-1. Their run also included wins over ENTERPRISE and B8, but with the third victory secured, the team was set to take on Europe’s best CS2 teams for a spot at the Major. In celebrating their victory, PARAVISION posted a now-deleted video that saw team coach Ivan “F_1N” Kochugov partake in the match and their celebrations.

Coaches are strictly forbidden from being visually present with a team when there are no event admins, according to Valve’s CS2 Major rulebook, and given these qualifiers were held online, no team can utilize a coach in person until a match has concluded. “PARIVISION’s eligibility in this Major cycle has been canceled, and they are disqualified for the RMRs and any other portion of the Major,” Perfect World said in a statement.

To make matters worse, F_1N isn’t supposed to participate at all—he found himself on Valve’s list of banned individuals after it was revealed he used the 2020 coach bug exploit to gain an advantage for his team, Gambit Youngsters. The near-nine-month ban was for all ESIC-registered events, while Valve permanently banned him from any Major-level tournament or qualifier.

With PARAVISION out, Perfect World decided the other teams that missed out—BLEED, KOI, and Monte—would play a best-of-three round-robin bracket with the emerging winner heading to the RMR. This bracket is now set to be played this Tuesday, Aug. 27.

PARAVISION rifler Robert “Patsi” Isyanov said on X/Twitter it was “the most ridiculous and sad situation in a career, if not in life” after the Perfect World ruling was handed out. The organization has yet to publicly speak on the disqualification.

The Counter-Strike 2 RMRs for the impending Shanghai Major don’t begin until November as they’ll be held on-site in China, but one thing’s for sure—we won’t be seeing PARAVISION anywhere near the server to play in them anymore.