CS:GO: ESL Will Now Ban You For Wearing The Wrong Shoes

The ESL Faceit Group has decided to ban pros from wearing a certain type of shoe at CS:GO events...

Csgo crocs
ESL bans certain typed of clothing, sadly crocs are among the banned stuff |©Valve / Early Game (Montage)

That you can't just show up at a professional tournament wearing certain clothes should be common knowledge by now. There were always regulations and policies regarding the player's outfit. Now, the ESL Faceit Group has announced new changes to its rulebook. One very famous shoe type can't be worn on stage anymore.

ESL Bans Crocs And Introduces New Clothing Policies

Ahead of one of the biggest CS:GO tournaments of the calendar year, IEM Cologne 2023, the ESL Faceit Group has announced some changes to its rulebook. Some of these rules regard the type of clothing that players are allowed to wear on stage.

In rule 4.3 Clothing it's stated that:

The players and teams need to ensure that they are all in equal coloured team attire, long trousers and closed shoes (i.e. shorts, flip-flops and (i.e. shorts, flip-flops and foam clogs e.g. crocs clogs are not allowed)

Nothing truly revolutionary right? But it's interesting to see, that Crocs were named separately again in a clarification point in the rulebook. There it's stated that:

Clarified in 4.3 Clothing that Crocs are considered open shoes and therefore not allowed.

Poor Crocs, right? And Crocs have been banned in other esports events as well. Where does this hate against one of the most popular type of shoe came from? In fact, LoL pro-player Joseph "jojopyun" Pyun was even fined for wearing them during the World Championship in 2022.

Ok, sometimes it's all about the looks, especially in esport. But most players just want to be as comfortable as possible, to feel relaxed and play their best game. By the way, there are some other new rules and regulations, but this topic obviously pales in comparison to the Crocs ban.

So, there you have it, just don't wear crocs or other open shoes while playing in ESL tournaments and you should be fine. You can thank us later for this tip, it would be a shame to destroy your professional career over bad clothing.

Henning Paul
Henning Paul