What was F_1N’s controversy about?
While the exact reason behind F_1N’s removal from the active roster has not been made clear, with the organization calling it a “joint decision”, F_1N’s controversy earlier this year definitely plays some part in it. Back in August, when PARAVISION best GamerLegion in their qualifying match for the (now upcoming) RMR, Ivan “F_1N” Kochugov was later spotted to be present in that qualifying match.
For additional context, F_1N was banned by Valve in 2020 for using the infamous coach spectator exploit to unfairly favor his team at the time, Gambit Youngsters. As far as specifics fo the ban go, he was excluded from ESIC-registered months for the following nine-months, and permanently excluded from any qualifier or major for all times to come. On the basis of this ban, PARAVISION, instead of qualifying for the Perfect World Shanghai Major Europe RMR, was disqualified from it. It was a very big deal at the time following Perfect World’s announcement regarding PARAVISION’s disqualification, the team’s rifler Robert “Patsi” Isyanov took to X (formerly Twitter) to express how it was “the most ridiculous and sad situation in a career, if not in life.”
However, one key piece of information was missing from the entire situation: F_1N had been unbanned for quite some time then as he had appealed his ban somewhere down the line and gotten it successfully approved. In other words, it was perfectly legitimate for him to be present at PARAVISION’s qualifying game against GamerLegion. Unfortunately, due to miscommunication between ESIC, Valve and Perfect World, PARAVISION was disqualified over outdated facts, a decision that was later reversed.
ESIC also came out at the time to clarify the situation: “It seems that Perfect World was not aware of F_1N’s appeal to ESIC’s independent appeal panel when making their decision to disqualify the team “PARIVISION”. Perfect World has recently reached out to ESIC to confirm the details of the appeal and the decision made."
Although the controversy was resolved, it negatively impacted the reputation of all parties involved, especially the organizers. The most unfortunate were teams like BLEED, KOI and Monte, who were supposed to play remake qualifiers to take up PARAVISION’s then disqualified spot, but as the decision was reversed, their dreams of making it to the RMR were crushed once more.
