ESL Poland has released a statement revealing that AGO has been stripped of their ESL Poland Championship Spring 2021 title after their investigation into a stream-sniping violation. The losing finalists, HONORIS have been named the champions, along with$6,600 USD and an invite to the ESL National Championships Global Playoff Spring.
The Investigation into stream-sniping
On May 18, ESL Poland announced an investigation into an alleged stream sniping violation during the grand finals of the ESL Polis Championship Spring 2021. This was after a video surfaced of the AGO players celebrating their championship win. According to the tournament organiser, the official stream was seen running “within sight of at least two AGO representatives, one of whom was in direct contact with the team. ”
ESL Poland mentioned that both ESL, and the Esports Integrity Commission were involved in this investigation.
Following the investigation, x-kom AGO have had their ESL Poland Championship Spring 2021 Title, $6,600 USD Prize Money, and ESL National Championships Global Playoff Spring spot stripped away and given to the losing finalists, HONORIS.
ESL Poland also said,
“AGO responded to all of our inquiries and provided all available resources, and presented a plausible scenario indicating that the representatives made this mistake without malicious intent, In view of this, we refrained from even harsher measures, such as a two-year disqualification from ESL tournaments.”
AGO’s Response
AGO released a statement following the decision of ESL Poland. In their statement they reveal how they were “surprised” by the statement from ESL Poland, and that they will “take all available legal steps not only in terms of the appeal but also to protect the good name of our organization.”
“The representative of x-kom AGO had a stream from the final match in sight, but he was not in direct contact with the team – this incident was not intended and was not the reason for any advantage for the winning team and did not affect the final result, which was clearly confirmed by the audiovisual materials that we provided to ESL Polska as part of full cooperation.
After receiving a written decision of ESL Polska (the official organizer of the tournament, whose regulations were signed by the management bodies of AGO Esports), containing at least a specific indication of the allegedly violated point of the regulations and supporting evidence, we will start the appeal procedure to ESIC.
Until then, our organization will not provide any additional comments. We consider the current position of ESL Polska to be fundamentally inconsistent with the spirit of sport and contrary to the DNA of x-kom AGO, which we have been building on the principle of fair play from the very beginning.”
HONORIS
HONORIS now have the honour to compete in the ENC Global Playoff Spring 2021, where the winner will get to choose between a spot in the IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in or a spot in IEM Summer.
