Cover-Credits:
- Hard Legion removes MechanoGun from his post as team coach.
- The decision follows ESL's investigation that found him guilty of using the spectator bug.
- MechanoGun is currently banned for 24-months from all DreamHack and ESL tournaments.
Russian esports organization Hard Legion has removed Aleksandr "MechanoGun" Bogatiryev “from his post as team coach” following a two-year ban from playing or coaching in all ESL and Dreamhack tournaments. The team has taken this decision following ESL’s investigation which found the 33-year-old Russian guilty of using the coach spectating bug exploit to gain an unfair competitive advantage across 6 maps on 3 matches at ESL One Road to Rio.
RELATED: HUNDEN, Dead, MechanoGun Banned For Using Coach Spectating Bug in CS:GO
Hard Legion Removes MechanoGun
The Russian organization released a statement from their side a few hours back on the incident which had rocked the CS:GO community earlier today. In the TwitLonger post, Hard Legion revealed that following ESL’s decision the team conducted their own investigation as well and though “It was difficult for us to believe in Alexander's guilt. Based on the results of internal discussions, we decided that the punishment from ESL was fair.”
Having accepted the organizer’s decision Hard Legion stated that they are “Extremely negative about any manifestation of ‘cheating’ and believes that honesty in Esports should be above all other things!”
The organization further clarified that their players were in the clear and that they continued to play fair, ignoring the fact that their coach’s hints turned out to be extremely accurate.
“We have no reason to believe that the players were aware of this 'bug' in advance, so no sanctions on our part will be applied to the players.”
Hard Legion finally stated that without looking for any excuses on the part of their coach, MechanoGun was being immediately dismissed him from his post as the team’s coach. They went on to apologies to the organizer, all their competitors, and even the fans.
RELATED: CS:GO Exploit Allows Users to See Through Smoke, Wallhack, and Modify Skins
ESIC’s (Esports Integrity Commission) decision on the matter is still awaited eagerly while BTS (Beyond The Summit) has also initiated its own investigation into the incident. Let’s see what outcome do these organizations reach after their independent assessment of the incident.
