Vitality fined $10.000 following BLAST Premier Global Finals stream-sniping incident

The Esports Integrity Commission fined Team Vitality $10.000 following an incident where there was a BLAST Premier stream playing in the background during one of their matches.

While the ESIC says that players didn’t receive any advantage or information from the stream, they still found Vitality to be in breach of their rules, awarding them a $10.000 fine. They elaborated on their decision in a statement. “ESIC’s decision to fine the organisation rather than disqualify, suspend or ban the team is predicated on ESIC’s review of the evidence which indicates that taking an action in the alternative would have been a disproportionate and unfair outcome for the negligence of the organisation’s staff who, whilst negligent, had no intentional malice in their actions.”

ESIC issues $10,000 fine to team Vitality in response to stream-sniping breach of the ESIC Code.

While there was no malicious intention detected by ESIC in its examination of evidence, ESIC’s zero tolerance approach mandates accountability from the organisation for the breach. pic.twitter.com/Gs7Kwut0le

— ESIC (@ESIC_Official) January 23, 2021

Tournament organizers BLAST also reacted to the statement made by the ESIC on Twitter. “When the admins spotted the stream, Vitality was immediately told to turn off the screen in the other room, which they did without hesitation. We informed ESIC and supported them in their investigation as they reviewed footage and made a decision. We take our steer from them to be impartial and uphold competitive integrity.”

The decision follows reports of fans on Reddit and social media spotting the livestream in the background during the Vitality match. By awarding Vitality a fine, the ESIC holds true to their word in cracking down on stream-sniping incidents in 2021.

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