On October 24th, Russian esports organization forZe eSports announced signing banned CSGO coach zoneR as the coaching staff for forZe school.
“Alexander has a lot of experience in competitive CS: GO, which can apply in work with the students and help them in the game,” the org tweeted.
“First of all, ZoneR is known for bringing his team to the Major, so his coaching experience and understanding of the game will help to educate new guys who are ‘on fire’ with CS: GO,” Sergey “MegioN” Ignatko, CEO of forZe eSports, added.
ZoneR is one of the 37 coaches banned from competitive CSGO for abusing a spectator bug in tournaments. Out of all the coaches banned, zoneR received the longest ban of 36 months following an investigation by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). In the investigation, zoneR was found to have abused the bug in 16 cases.
After foRze’s addition of zoneR to their school, they faced some heavy backlash from the community for signing the banned coach.
“Not the smartest brand development choice, forze have a lot of lovable characters and their storyline is exciting,” CSGO caster Alex “Machine” Richardson said. “Would be a shame to see an ill thought out decision damage their reputation or fan base.”
ZoneR was kicked from team Hard Legion on September 1st after ESL banned the 33-year-old for abusing the spectator bug in their tournaments.
Later, forZe released a statement to clarify the situation. “We decided to give him a CHANCE to be useful and atone for his guilt and understand why the reaction of the community is very ambiguous,” the org said.
