Vitality's CS:GO team fined $10,000 for stream sniping

The Esports Integrity Commission has fined Vitality's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team $10,000 for stream sniping. The misdemeanour occurred during Vitality's BLAST Premier matches against Team Liquid and Complexity, where the official stream clearly showed the broadcast being played on a television in the lounge behind the players.

The BLAST Premier is one of the biggest esports tournaments, but ESIC's assessment of the footage "does not suggest that the players were given information derived from the stream or that they gained any advantage in their matches". Therefore, ESIC determines that a ban would be a "disproportionate" punishment for Vitality.

Vitality's management has accepted responsibility for the error, with CEO Nicolas Maurer saying that "Even though this is not coming from a malicious intention, we agree that this placement [of the television] is controversial. This is a big mistake on our side and we accept the fine." Both the team and BLAST Premier commissioner Andrew Haworth acknowledge that as soon as the team was made aware of the stream playing behind its players, someone immediately turned off the screen. Maurer additionally apologised to all CS:GO fans for the violation.

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