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On December 2 the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) issued a statement concerning “stream sniping” in the competitive CS:GO scene.
While the ESIC once again condemned the practice they also made the controversial decision to close all ongoing investigations without prosecution.
ESIC makes several recommendations to tournament operator members in order to ensure that the threats posed to competitive integrity by this form of behavior are appropriately addressed
ESIC confirmed in their statement that they received so many reports regarding potential stream sniping cases that they believe the practice to have been widespread in the online competitive CS:GO scene. This meant that the ESIC had to face the possibility of issuing a large scale ban wave to keep in line with their previous policy in the still ongoing coaching bug investigation. A ban wave that would have had “an extremely adverse effect on CS:GO esports, particularly in the top tier”.
No Prosecution
Faced with that prospect, a lack of ressources to properly investigate and an almost impossible burden of proof, ESIC decided to not issue any sanction. But the commission did announce a zero-tolerance policy beginning from December 2 for future cases of stream sniping and laid out a framework of regulations and practices for tournament organizers to prevent abuse.
Super disappointed TOs and ESIC decided not to punish those caught stream sniping.
How does one get away with what’s essentially cheating? How is it fair on those who played fair and potentially lost money, ranking points or even their jobs?! https://t.co/U0RNSfd0GP
Many members of the community like Michau, who exposed the coaching bug abuse earlier this year, voiced their disappointment in ESIC’s handling of the issue. While that criticism is valid, there are also very good reasons for why ESIC chose to act this way.
A toothless tiger?
The first and foremost problem in dealing with those cases is the lack of ressources at hand for ESIC. They are simply unable to investigate thousands of hours of tournament footage within a reasonable timeframe.
Do you want people to not care or worry about your little regulatory body? Because this is how you get people to not care or worry about your little regulatory body. https://t.co/gacOFvJrZl
The second problem arises from the fact that ESIC is not a worldwide association with the necessary leverage over teams, players and tournaments. At its core the ESIC is an instituation that sprung up to attempt to self regulate the scene and therefore is utterly dependant on goodwill from others like the tournaments organizers or the participating players.
There is only one entity that could fulfill that role with the necessary ressources and authority and that would be Valve. But with the developer’s well-known hands-off approach compared to others like Riot or Blizzard Activision, it is unlikely that things are going to change any time soon.
Until then ESIC’s attempt is the only way to even attempt the squaring of the circle. It is far from ideal but the reality is that they cannot do more than that.
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