"I guess they couldn't ... persevere": Fans react to CS2 team getting banned by ESL

NA CS2 team Perseverance Gaming has been disqualified from the ESL Challenger League Season 48 and banned from all EFG pro competitions for two months. According to an official announcement from the ESL, the decision was made because the team presented false evidence to reschedule a match.

The evidence apparently consisted of Discord messages citing fake power and weather issues to "mislead" the tournament administration. The texts were reportedly sent from the private phone number of one of the players.

Here's a part of the announcement:

"Last week, it came to our attention that Perseverance Gaming submitted false evidence to mislead the tournament administration in an effort to have an ESL Challenger League match rescheduled."

Popular CS2 source Ozzny also shared the news on X, and the community was quick to react to it. @Chasing_Amnesia took a jab at the team saying:

"I guess they couldn't ... persevere"

According to @GangTomm91, the entire situation was karma catching up to Perseverance Gaming.

Many fans couldn't understand the motivations behind such an attempt. Why would the team want to reschedule a match? User @jelly07070707 asked:

"But why though"

Not all CS2 fans were glad about the strict action taken by the ESL. User @kelyrag felt unsure about the evidence presented:

"Wait is the typo an evidence? On screenshot there is no phone number so idk"

Meanwhile, @XyzalG59050 was concerned about the match-rescheduling attempt. They wondered why the ESL couldn't postpone the match regardless of whether the evidence was real or not.

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More about the NA CS2 issue involving Perseverance Gaming

CS2 team's issue explained (Image via Steam)

According to an investigation by Dust2us, Perseverance Gaming tried to reschedule a match against Mythic on July 18, 2024. According to the report, the team wanted the match to be postponed so that they could play Nelvin "nooz" Gonzalez instead of Chance "xaler" Palmer, who was later removed from the roster on July 24, 2024.

As per Dust2us' source, the Discord messages were sent to make it look like there was a power outage at the home of Cory "shutout" Frymark (one of the team's players), and influence the tournament's administration to reschedule the match. The texts were allegedly sent from the personal phone number of Gabriel "Gabe" Shah.

However, the incorrect spelling of the word "experience" in the messages and the weather data for shutout's residential area made the whole thing look suspicious.

The weather data showed that shutout's residential area experienced just about 0.73 inches of rain and winds not exceeding 13 miles per hour between July 17, 2024, to July 18, 2024. This indicated that power outage in the location was unlikely as the weather was, by no means, extreme.

Regardless of the alleged proof, the Counter-Strike 2 team has been disqualified from the ESL Challenger League Season 48.