Team Croatia disqualified from CS2 World Esports Championship for cheating

Team Croatia has been disqualified from the IESF CS2 World Esports Championship after the authorities found the team guilty of using programs that provided them with an unfair advantage during their match against Israel on July 9, 2024. Croatia was all set to go up against Poland representatives Rebels on July 13, 2024. However, after the cheating issue was brought to light, Poland was given a default win since their opponents got disqualified.

Famous Counter-Strike 2 informant Ozzny took to their X page to share the news. They also highlighted how the team had previously been disqualified for cheating earlier this year.

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Team Croatia disqualified for cheating during IESF CS2 Esports World Championship

Team Croatia got disqualified from the championship's European Closed Qualifiers after a manual review discovered them cheating against Israel. Interestingly, this isn't the team's first offense. In May 2024, the team was disqualified from FISSURE tournaments for allegedly cheating.

Right after Croatia won their CS2 match against Israel, one of the Israeli players, Shiran "shushan" Shushan, took to X to acknowledge their loss. The post certainly had a rather intriguing choice of words:

"Lost 0-2 to the best reads in counter strike, pleasure to play. Next we play #Albania in 47 minutes. Still not out from road to Riyadh."

The highlight of the post is "shushan" admitting losing to the "best reads in counter strike". Regardless, as of now, Croatia is out and so is Israel after losing to Serbia later on in the tournament. As a result, Serbia, Poland, and Romania will now head to international LAN.

After the incident, an IESF representative spoke with Liquipedia regarding the incident. They revealed how their referees found the team abusing programs that helped them cheat in CS2.

"I would like to inform you that Croatia (CS2 Open team) has been disqualified from the IESF European Regional Qualifiers. Our head referees, after reviewing the match against Israel, determined that Croatia was using programs that provided an unfair advantage (cheating) in that matchup. Further details regarding the decision and the length of the players' ban will be available at a later stage. The bracket will not be reverted; Poland will receive a free win today, and Serbia and Romania are qualified for WEC24."

The fate of the Croatian players hangs in the balance. They will receive bans and it is clear that the team's overall reputation has been tarnished. It is likely that the roster won't see another professional matchup for some time.