Overwatch Streamer “Kephrii” Banned From $100,000 CS:GO Event Amidst Cheating Accusations

Popular Overwatch streamer Brian “Kephrii” St. Pierre who is known for his Widowmaker gameplay participated in a $100,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) event by ReadyUp. Another Overwatch streamer, Gale Adelaide, was also participating in the event and multiple participants pointed out that both players were teaming up and intentionally fed each other high point kills to reach the top of the leaderboards.

FACEIT cleared Kephrii of cheating accusations

The whole point of the tournament was to reward individual skill instead of team play. The players who secure the highest points based on the scoring system are awarded the grand prize. Kills are worth one point each, assists are worth two points each and knife kills earn players five points. With Gale getting three knife kills on Kephrii, and Kephrii getting two knife kills on Gale, players started accusing both players of colluding.

FACEIT investigated the matter after complaints started popping up and cleared all accusations against Kephrii. Later, even more players got suspicious about Kephrii and Gale and wanted them to be removed from the tournament.

FACEIT eventually removed Kephrii from the event so the tournament could be finished. However, the tournament organizers are yet to issue an official statement regarding the issue. Kephrii has claimed that he genuinely did not hear Gale sneak up on him whenever he got knifed in the back.

This is not the first time that Kephrii has been dragged into cheating or exploiting accusations. Even during his time in Overwatch, he was found exploiting game-breaking bugs. With the player competing at the highest ranks of play (former Top 500 player in Overwatch) and still resorting to exploits, a lot of gamers who know him are not too happy about it.

No one should jump to conclusions until the tournament organizers release an official statement. With FACEIT clearing Kephrii’s name and removing him only to ensure the tournament gets completed, there is no official information yet confirming if he was colluding or not.