UK esports organisation Luxor’s CSGO team has fallen apart after one of its players was caught cheating in ESEA matches.
Bevve was using a smoke exploit in pick-up-group (PUG) matches, which allowed him to see through smoke and easily shoot his targets. Luxor said as far as it’s aware the exploit was used in four PUG matches.
CSGO platform ESEA has hit Bevve with a two-year ban for cheating, as confirmed on Bevve’s ESEA user page. He’ll be able to play again from November 3rd 2020.
Another CSGO player, Yoshwa, shared the following clips which demonstrate the smoke exploit in action:
exploit not cheat 🙂 pic.twitter.com/ikrSTHLVHC
— Yoshwa (@YoshwaUK) November 5, 2018
Luxor Esports said in a statement that Bevve was influenced by fellow teammate Slunixx, and that their CSGO team is no more. After releasing Bevve and Slunixx, the remaining players in the roster – CrePoW, Xaka and Nilso – have decided to step down from the team.
“At Luxor, we do not tolerate any type of cheating, exploit or toxicity while playing under Luxor and this is made clear to all players,” the org said.
“After looking at all evidence provided, we can confirm that, unknowingly to the organisation, Bevve was using a smoke exploit which allowed him to see the outline of enemy players through smokes.
“We had been made aware that other main team member Slunixx was involved in providing information and influencing Bevve to download the cheats. There is no evidence of Slunnix using this exploit, but chat logs suggest there were talks of these exploits/cheats being used in future official matches and involvement of this kind is not accepted here at Luxor.
“I would like to apologise for any problems this matter has caused to any individual, team or organisation.”
“At Luxor, we do not tolerate any type of cheating, exploit or toxicity. I would like to apologise for any problems this matter has caused to any individual, team or organisation.”
Luxor added that ESEA is now looking into the case before making a statement on Luxor’s spot in ESEA Main, and that there is no evidence to suggest the exploit was used in their recent CEVO Gfinity Spring Series Amateur final win against BaeconGG.
Bevve said he has received death threats and insults since the incident. He also posted info on the use of the exploit in a Twitlonger post.
“I’m exposing the method to better the current state of ESEA, I’d apologise for using it but the constant flow of death threats and insults has put me off of it,” Bevve commented.
“The use of it is for sure scummy, wrong and for sure if I could go back I wouldn’t use it, but the need to take things that personal and serious is ridiculous. I’ll still be actively playing on FACEIT and other platforms, cleanly of course.”
The use of the exploit has sparked a debate within the CSGO community as to what constitutes cheating.
As long as Valve is not going to fix this, the exploit will persist. And therefore, plenty other people can use it. Please don’t accuse @bevveCS in cheating. He didn’t cheat, and me neither.
— cleanlock (@cleanlock) November 5, 2018
If you think I’m arguing it isn’t a cheat you are wrong, I agree its a cheat 100% however esea’s banning for this is only 2mo and I ended up with 2y. Regardless I think the bans should be 2y but consistent. Not me with 2y and 6-7 swede semi/pros get 2mo
— bevve ?? (@bevveCS) November 7, 2018
ESEA responded to Esports News UK’s initial request for comment but as of yet have not provided a statement.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
