After former OpTic India player Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat was caught using hacks in the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND 2018, and was subsequently banned from the Asia Pro League. ESL India announced that they had discovered that Forsaken had also used hacks on the ESL India Premiership 2018 - Fall Season Finale LAN.
They reportedly sent the evidence recovered from the SSD that he used at the event to the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC). After the investigation, the ESIC has announced a ban for forsaken from "all esports related activity for or with any ESIC member organisation" for five years.
The ESIC also confirmed that No cheats were found on the other OpTic India players’ SSDs.
The ESIC has attempted to contact forsaken “to offer him a reasonable time to consider the evidence and take the opportunity to plead guilty and accept a proposed sanction or plead not guilty and defend himself before our independent Disciplinary Panel”, but the player did not respond.
Since this is the 2nd time that Forsaken has been sanctioned by the ESIC, he should have been handed a lifetime ban according to the ESIC rules. But he has been issued a 5 Year Ban, “as his first offence in 2017 was only very indirectly related to this offence and that a lifetime ban would have been disproportionate.”
They also added the following anticipating a backlash: “We are conscious that many in the CS:GO community will disagree with this and we understand their feelings, but do not agree and feel that sanctions in esports ought to reflect what is accepted practice in traditional sports as our industry professionalises.”