Veteran esports referee Michal Slowinski has accused FURIA’s head coach Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira of abusing the CS:GO spectating bug at ECS North America season seven, week two in March 2019.
Slowinski conducted the investigation that banned three coaches—HUNDEN from Heroic, Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia from MIBR, and Aleksandr “MechanoGun” Bogatiryev from Hard Legion—earlier this week for exploiting the coach spectating bug at ESL One: Road to Rio or DreamHack Masters Spring Europe, two tournaments that took place between April and June.
In the clip that Slowinski shared, guerri is standing in Mirage’s top mid, which is a place where he could gather a lot of information about the enemy team. Guerri allegedly abused the bug throughout the whole map against Complexity and was also bugged in a match a day earlier against Luminosity Gaming but “decided to reconnect to get it fixed, FACEIT informed.”
Ironically, FURIA lost Mirage to Complexity 16-9, which may indicate that guerri wasn’t passing the information along to his players. Slowinski’s accusation will have to be processed and reviewed by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). FURIA will also have a chance to appeal if guerri is suspended.
The clip, however, already leaves the Brazilian CS:GO scene in shambles since its two top teams—FURIA and MIBR—have been caught abusing the coach spectating bug. MIBR’s coach dead used the bug for one round against Triumph at ESL One: Road to Rio North America and will serve a six-month ban.
FURIA’s CEO Jaime Padua said he’s “checking what Slowinski reported and is looking for possible answers.” Guerri, on the other hand, said the situation is true and “very easy to explain.” Both the head coach and the CEO will speak more about it later today.
Update Sept. 2 1:43pm CT: This article was updated after guerri and FURIA’s CEO spoke about the accusations on Twitter.
Update Sept. 3 8:29am CT: Last night, guerri uploaded a video on YouTube where he explained his point of view. He said the first time he encountered the coaching bug, he didn’t understand what it was and it resolved itself after a single round in the match against Luminosity Gaming.
Guerri said he expected the bug to fix itself again in the other match against Complexity, where he allegedly exploited the bug during the whole map. Guerri said once the bug didn’t fix itself, he alt-tabbed out of the game and went to stand behind the players. “I know I should have disconnected, but wasn’t aware of the full impact of the bug,” guerri said.
To prove his point, guerri also has uploaded the team’s communication in the matches against LG and Complexity. Slowinski hasn’t commented yet after guerri’s response.
