Brazilian Premier League footballer Gabriel Jesus has complained after receiving a VAC (Valve Anti Cheat) ban in Counter-Strike 2.
The Arsenal striker may be struggling to find the net on the pitch at the moment, but he’s scored a bit of an old goal in Counter-Strike.
Jesus took to Twitter (aka X, where he has 1.8m followers) to say: “Hi @Counterstrike, my account received a VAC ban unfairly, can you help me? Follow the account link and print of the ban.”
His account is currently private, but his in-game username is currently ><JeSuS><
It’s not clear why Jesus’ account was banned, but VAC bans can happen for a number of reasons.
Valve’s official VAC information page states: “If a user connects to a VAC-secured server from a computer with identifiable cheats installed, the VAC system will ban the user from playing that game on VAC-Secured servers in the future.
“The VAC system reliably detects cheats using their cheat signatures. Any third-party modifications to a game designed to give one player an advantage over another is classified as a cheat or hack and will trigger a VAC ban. This includes modifications to a game’s core executable files and dynamic link libraries.”
Several community members and entities in esports reacted to the news, with some having a laugh about the situation.
Heroic tweeted the official Counter-Strike Twitter account, saying ‘free him’, while one Arsenal fan said: “Bro’s been practising the wrong shooting drills.”
“Hi Counter-Strike, my account received a VAC ban unfairly, can you help me?”
Gabriel Jesus
Others were confused, at first thinking Gabriel Jesus’ post was from a parody account or a fan account.
Another added: “People in the comments forget footballers are actual people who have hobbies outside of football. Mans justs wants to play a few games of CS – he probably has the day off today.”
It’s the second time in just over a month that a former Man City player and current Arsenal footballer has been involved in CS esports news. Last month, Premier League footballer Zinchenko subbed in for a CS player on his team, and other footballers have been known to play the game, such as Neymar.
David Beckham also has a stake in the UK’s Guild Esports, Sergio Agüero and Mesut Ozil and others have their own orgs, to name a few.
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.
