EPIC CIS League Participants Ask VALVE to Investigate Akuma

Participants of the recently concluded RMR-event EPIC CIS League Spring 2021 have published an open letter to VALVE, asking the developers to launch an investigation into Akuma, whom they suspect in dishonest play. The letter is signed by 15 teams, among which are NAVI, Gambit, Virtus.pro, forZe, Team Spirit and others.

Akuma, a team consisting of young Ukrainian players not known to general public, surprised everyone by suddenly defeating Natus Vincere and Virtus.pro with 2-0 scores. Many members of the community, including professional players and commentators, noticed that during matches Akuma members often looked to a side, which may suggest that they were using a radar on additional monitor or were receiving information in another unfair way.

The teams that signed the petition claim that they have information that lets them believe that Akuma were able to see opponents positions at all times thanks to receiving live data from third parties. They ask VALVE to involve ESIC or other competent authorities to launch a full investigation and are eager to share the information they have.

Earlier Russian Esports Federation, who hosted EPIC CIS League in cooperation with Epic Esports Events, published a statement claiming that they had conducted their own investigation and were not able to prove Akuma’s foul play. The teams however are not satisfied with this result and believe that a proper investigation was not possible due to several limitations. Namely, the organizer did not record teams talking during matches, did not use an additional anti-cheat on top of VAC, and did not have a proper delay for GOTV.

Considering this, the teams ask VALVE to develop protocols for future events to prevent similar situations from happening. They propose the following requirements:

• Data providers can only sell data with a 20-30 second delay
• TeamSpeak communications must be recorded by all teams for every game
• GOTV must have a 120-second delay
• In addition to a camera in front of the player, there should be an extra camera capturing the whole setup of the player
• Additional anti-cheat on top of VAC

Akuma themselves deny any involvement in unfair game. Thanks to placing third at the EPIC League, now they have 1120 RMR-points and are placed 5th in the region. They are the only participant of the league who did not sign the open letter.