CS:GO can inspire strong emotions – on the positive and the negative side of the spectrum. Sadly, in the last 24 hours it inspired the latter.
16-year-old CS:GO pro Nathan “leaf” Orf has been bombarded with accusations of cheating and what’s much worse – threats of violence and even death by fanatical mibr fans. These accusations and resulting threats come after leaf’s team Chaos Esports Club delivered a big fat L to Made in Brazil in the cs_summit 6 regional qualifier.
A whole lot has been made out of some suspicious crosshair placement taken out from the in-game footage of the Chaos – mibr game. The most talked about moments are summed up in this short video:
We can all agree that these moments do make you pause for a second. Natural crosshair placement is not something you would call the things seen in the video. Yet, threatening a 16-year-old boy, yes – boy, because he may have cheated in a CS:GO game is astoundingly ludicrous. Threating anyone over anything that has happened in a video game is ludicrous. Don’t. Do. That.
That’s the message of many CS:GO pros who have commented on the matter, including Made in Brazil captain Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo:
Eu nao gosto de acusar ninguem de trapaca sem provas, ja fizeram isso no passado comigo e pode ser uma grande injustica. Vamos aguardar o campeonato averiguar e so o que podemos fazer. Eu achei os clipes enviados suspeitos sim
— Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) June 22, 2020
The alleged death threats make it hard to focus on the accusations themselves, but I’m sad to say there is some merit to them. The same pros that defended leaf on the part with the threats expressed their own suspicion at the clips from the game:
The clips are suspicious, but the threats are uncalled for. Please understand that should not be an option. I'm sorry for adding fuel to the fire as I am not in a position to make an accusation publicly. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty so let the officials decide.
— tarik (@tarik) June 22, 2020
Leaf’s case isn’t helped by the fact he has already agreed a deal to play Valorant professionally, which means a potential ban from CS:GO might be viewed as a minor inconvenience for him.
We’d like to stick to the spirit of the pros’ messages and reserve final judgement until leaf is proven guilty. Whatever the case may be, for the love of coldzera’s jumping AWP, don’t threaten to murder children over a video game! Or over anything, really.
