Players and Talent React to Valve's Strict Rules Against Coaches at CS:GO Major

The PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is well underway with the Legends Stage all set to begin from today onwards. However, the community, players, talent, and especially the coaches are quite upset following Danny "zonic" Sørensen's revealing Valve's strict rules against coaches that prohibit them from cheering on the players.

Zonic publicly revealed yesterday on 29^th October that Valve had apparently instructed PGL to enforce strict rules against the coaches. This included no touching the players except during a timeout (no hi-fives, fist bumps) and no shouting (can't even say "nice"). Also, in case these rules were not followed the coaches would be asked to vacate the tournament area.

There was a huge community-wide uproar against this decision after it was brought to the public's knowledge by the Danish coach. Here is how some of the players, talent, teams, and other prominent CS:GO figures reacted to this new rule.

CS:GO players, talent react to Valve's rules against coaches at PGL Major Stockholm 2021

Danny "zonic" Sørensen

Zonic was the one who broke the news to the entire CS:GO community soon after Astralis made it through to the Legends Stage. The experienced coach via a series of tweets had explained what the exact issue was stating that:

Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács

The CS:GO legend who is currently a part of Team Singularity called this rule "the dumbest thing ever enforced in CS history". He was upset about the fact that coaches were being denied from showing their emotions and supporting the players.

Betway CS:GO

A sharp observation was made by Betway as they pointed out to a clip of BIG's IGL Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz being denied a fist bump by the team's interim coach Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninić during their do-or-die match against MOUZ.

Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill

SPUNJ who is casting at the tournament alongside Alex "Machine" Richardson responded in disappointment, as he mentioned that the incident of the spectator bug abuse has exacerbated the situation resulting in this outcome where are coaches now not being able to morally support their players.

Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz

The talented marksmen had some snide comments to offer towards the redundancy of the new rule. He firstly stated that at least the players were allowed to say "nice" to each other and followed this up by proposing a scenario where someone in the audience could convey information to a team via placards.

Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas

Polish CS:GO legend, TaZ, was completely taken aback upon hearing about this rule. He was extremely concerned about the fact that how would a coach be able to build an emotional connect with the players on his team, reiterating the idea that "emotions are what CS is all about".

Many other similar opinions were shared by prominent community figures with Vitality's coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam being one of the more vocal personalities against this rule by Valve.

There were some who spoke in favor of the rule as well like Ulrish Schulze - Senior Vice President of Product for ESL, Michal Slowinski - Esports Referee, and a few others.

The debate continues within the CS:GO community with everyone putting forth their points and expressing their sentiments with regards to this issue. But this rule is not something that seems likely to be recalled or changed in any way, as the decision has been made by Valve themselves.