The newest controversy coming from the professional Counter-Strike scene is, once again, revolving around the Russian team forZe; the same team that opted to hire ‘zoneR‘ after he was caught by ESIC for using a spectating exploit to unfairly gain information during matches that he would use to inform the rest of his team as to the current positions of enemies on the map.
He was, by far, the most egregious cheater that ESIC uncovered (he actively cheated for well over 400 rounds), and forZe readily offered him a position and gave both Valve and ESIC a giant middle-finger regarding his three-year ban.
This has largely been considered a dumb idea.
The Russian team fought back against the outcry, saying they’re giving him an opportunity to redeem himself, but that didn’t necessarily sit well either. Now, the forZe controversies are continuing as it has been revealed that the team has been recording GOTV demos from scrimmages against other teams, rather than the POV recording that is standard for scrims.
There’s a difference between GOTV demos and POV recording; POV offers teams the access only to the views of those on their team: hence ‘point of view’ recording. Bringing a GOTV demo recorder into the scrim server allows forZe to record everything for analysis; such as precise strategies (and thus, openings of attack) while they play scrimmages against other teams, which they can then use in future matches against them.
This has, once again, largely been considered as poor taste from the Russian team.
The head coach of the Danish team MAD Lions, Luis ‘peacemaker’ Tadeu is the one calling out the practice this time in recent scrimmages; they are set to face off against forZe themselves in the future.
Using GOTV demos is distasteful, and echoes of the standard sentiment from ‘zoneR’ where he used exploits to gain information from the opposing team during matches. Insinuating that, perhaps, they picked up the controversial (and banned) figure as he simply matches forZe’s overall style.
Winning at all costs.
As this is now blowing up, however, forZe will likely suffer in the future; the scheme is publically blown, and the number of teams that are willing to compete against the insidious organization are likely few and far between, if any are even left.
No professional team wants their strategies picked apart and leaked out before a match; in the long term, this maneuver is more likely to harm forZe than anyone else.
