Counter-Strike CCT Series Pro Caught Cheating
Playing against hackers is a universal esports frustration, whether your enemy is a helicopter-spinning opponent with aim hacks toggled or a mysterious bot with wall-penetrating powers. The Counter-Strike franchise in particular has made serious efforts to punish in-game cheats so its competitive queue runs smoothly and its dedicated player base is happy.
That's why BC.Game Esports' recent cheating scandal in the worldwide B-tier Champions-of-Champions Tour tournament is so shocking. Let's examine everything we know about the career-ending scandal shaking the pro Counter-Strike 2 scene, who is at fault and what effects it will have on the parties involved.
Related Article: Esports World Cup CS2 Tournament Guide — Teams, Schedule, Where to Watch
What is the CCT Series Counter-Strike tournament?
The Champions-of-Champions Tour (CCT) is an international B-tier pro Counter-Strike tournament. The tournament's organizer is GRID, an esports data company, and its sponsors are Counter-Strike skin trading sites Hellcase and Skin Place. The CCT tournament sports a cumulative prize pool of about four million USD and has over four hundred teams participating. World-renowned teams including MIBR, Team Liquid, Fnatic and FURIA Esports compete in it, so it's safe to say CCT is a big deal.
What do we know about joel and the BC.Game Esports team?
BC.Game is an esports cryptocurrency betting site. The site appears to have its own esports organization, BC.Game Esports. The org's Counter-Strike 2 roster includes 'joel' and additional players 'LeKr0', 'anarkez', 'pr1metapz', 'CacaNito' and sub 'REDSTAR'.
Joel 'joel' Holmlund is a Counter-Strike pro player signed to BC.Game Esports. He has an accumulated $44,434 USD in winnings and his Liquipedia page indicates he previously played for the now-defunct organization GODSENT and had a trial period on TSM. After the TSM trial ended, joel moved to BC.Game, where he has played until this article's writing. He is active on Twitter.com and Twitch.
Holmlund has faced previous disciplinary action before this scandal. During his time on GODSENT, he bet on matches he was playing in and his activity violated Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) standards. The Esports Integrity Commission released an official statement on September 20th 2023 pinning joel with 'Corruption' and 'Betting' charges. ESIC defines Corruption as "fixing or contriving [...] the result, progress, conduct, or any other aspect of any Match." The level of influence joel had on his matches' outcomes is unclear, but this is certainly concerning.
After the ruling, GODSENT went defunct and ceased operation. It is unclear if joel's scandal contributed to this. Regardless, ESIC's ruling provisionally banned joel from participating in any ESIC-sponsored events. At some point after this ruling, joel moved to a trial period at TSM which ended for unknown reasons. Finally, joel arrived in 2024 to BC.Game's roster.
How was Joel caught cheating in CCT Series?
CCT Europe matches are monitored by Akros Anti-Cheat. The anti-cheat's website notes it was "developed and designed by veteran gamers to ensure all competitive games are based on skill, not cheats" and that it uses "heuristic and signature-based detection schemes to identify known and unknown cheats".
On August 4th, 2024, joel participated in a CCT Europe Series 7 match between BC.Game Esports and B8. The match was in a best-of-three format, and B8 won against BC.Game Esports 2-0. Akron Anti-Cheat detected unusual activity from joel and banned him during this game. BC.Games Esports' substitute REDSTAR immediately filled in, but the team's time in CCT Europe was over and they were immediately disqualified. It's unclear which exact cheats joel was using or how they affected the match, but joel's suspicious stats in previous matches do not give him a good look.
At the time of writing, BC.Game Esports has not commented on the situation. In addition, joel's Twitter does not mention the scandal although he has reposted some BC.Game Esports posts.
What will happen to Joel and BC Game in future tournaments?
CS pro Joel has been banned by Akros Anti Cheat, his team BC Game has now also been disqualified from the event pic.twitter.com/ShHihRR2Ug
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 4, 2024
One major scandal is enough to ruin an esports player's career, let alone two. Between joel's previous betting and 'corruption' ESIC charge and this CCT disqualification, he will be hard pressed to find future opportunities. This is also not a good look for BC.Games Esports as the BC.Games site is an esports betting platform and one of the players on their roster was caught with cheats affecting match outcomes.
The scandal gained major traction on Twitter after tweets from several prominent esports journalists and immediate reactions from fans watching the tournament live. Esports watchers seem enthusiastic about the ban. Twitter users are organizing watch parties for joel's VODs and joyously celebrating his downfall. User @SeanFour10 commented "an angel gets their wings every time a cheater is detected and banned". Very true, Sean!
Stay tuned for more information as this situation unfolds. In addition, we're here to keep you updated on all Counter-Strike 2 in-game updates and esports news!
GABBY DESENA