Former Call of Duty League pro Jimbo and his team, Orbit, have forfeited their remaining matches at the Challengers Finals today just over an hour after Jimbo’s account was banned mid-game.
During a match against OMiT, Jimbo was removed from a Hardpoint game and surprisingly hit with an account ban. Although some Challengers players used this as an opportunity to accuse Jimbo of hacking, as he has had a particularly stellar path-to-pro season, the former Paris Legion player was allowed to continue the series by Challengers officials.
Regarding the ban, Jimbo tweeted, “Activision said they’ll unban me no reason’s why I got ban.” It is unclear if Activision did tell Jimbo this. When Dot Esports reached out to the CDL, however, a league spokesperson seemed to indicate Jimbo’s account ban was legitimate and a part of a broader wave of bans.
“Yesterday, #TeamRICHOCHET executed a ban wave that impacted over 1,500 accounts across Modern Warfare II and Warzone for cheating and hacking offenses,” the spokesperson said.
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Orbit ultimately lost the resumed series to OMiT, and before Orbit were scheduled to play D1 Gaming LA next in the tournament, the team was forfeited, although an official reason was not announced publicly. GRVTY, one of Orbit’s other players who played alongside Jimbo in the CDL last season, confirmed they had been forfeited and commented on the potential ban of Jimbo.
“What sucks is I’ll have no idea if it’s a rightful ban or not,” GRVTY said. “Now off this shit all our reputations are completely tarnished.”
The Team Orbit Twitter account said it empathized with the other three players and said the team had been forfeited “due to a teammate allegedly doing things they shouldn’t online,” seemingly indicating that Jimbo had been banned for his online play, not his LAN performance.
Since Orbit’s disqualification, numerous Challengers players have lobbed allegations of cheating against Jimbo, with some pointing to the disparity between his Challengers play this season and his middling results while a member of the Legion, a team that posted the worst record in CDL history last year.
Boston Breach substitute Nero said, “Dropped a 1.5 in challengers but a .5 in the league and u guys didnt suspect anything? Guy is the best online player I ever played after Anthrax.”
Censor, Nero’s Challengers teammate, called Jimbo “a hacking cheater” and claimed that he knew Jimbo was cheating but did not publicly say anything due to a lack of proof and “out of respect for GRVTY.”
Even Johnny, who played with Jimbo on the Legion and briefly in Challengers earlier this season, said he was suspicious because of the difference in his play between online and LAN.
“Bro I teamed with jimbo for the first two lans, frying online and was wondering wtf was happening when we would get to lan. This shit comedy,” oJohnny said.
Former CoD world champion Parasite also chimed in: “I played with Jimbo throughout a short stint of challengers this year. It’s so weird because there were so many times where he would play terribly. Wonder when he started cheating. Or why it took him so long to get banned?”
