{"id":853197,"date":"2025-06-03T22:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T03:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/esic-issues-lifetime-ban-to-counter-strike-player-joel\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T22:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T03:12:44","slug":"esic-issues-lifetime-ban-to-counter-strike-player-joel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/03\/esic-issues-lifetime-ban-to-counter-strike-player-joel\/","title":{"rendered":"ESIC issues lifetime ban to Counter-Strike player Joel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/esic-joel-counter-strike-ban-large.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Joel 'Joel' Holmlund playing Counter Strike\"  ><figcaption>Image credit: Radowslaw Makuch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Swedish <strong>Counter-Strike<\/strong> player <strong>Joel \u2018joel\u2019 Holmlund<\/strong> has received a lifetime ban from the <strong>Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The ban was a result of an investigation into several breaches of the Commission\u2019s code of conduct and anti-corruption code.<\/p>\n<p>Investigations began in August 2024 when Joel was competing during Season 2 of the <strong>CCT European Series<\/strong>. The player was caught in possession of <strong>Asdfware EFI bootkit<\/strong>, a hardware cheat containing an aimbot and triggerbot.<\/p>\n<p>Joel admitted to the wrongdoing in a written response to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/esic.gg\/\">ESIC<\/a><\/strong>, resulting in an initial delay to the punishment. According to the ESIC, during the grace period, the former GODSENT player attempted to blackmail the Commission to avoid the matter being made public, an act ESIC deems \u2018an egregious breach\u2019 of its integrity programme.<\/p>\n<p>The misconduct marked the third time Joel had <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2023\/09\/esic-godsent-csgo-betting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">breached the programme<\/a> within a two-year period. In total, the player breached the anti-corruption code once and the code of conduct 11 times.<\/p>\n<p>Breaches of the code include: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fixing or improperly influencing the outcome of matches.<\/li>\n<li>Cheating or attempting to cheat. <\/li>\n<li>Match manipulation.<\/li>\n<li>Intimidating ESIC officials.<\/li>\n<li>Failing to share corrupt conduct with ESIC officials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a result, Joel is no longer eligible to compete in events that are affiliated with ESIC. The commission has recommended that non-members and game publishers honour the ban to ensure it\u2019s enforced across Counter-Strike esports.<\/p>\n<p>2025 has already seen ESIC implement bans in Counter-Strike esports. In March, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/atox-pgl-ban-disqualification\">ATOX<\/a><\/strong> was disqualified and banned from PGL events while the Commission investigated suspected match-fixing during the team\u2019s participation in Season 20 of the ESL Pro League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cESIC remains steadfast in its commitment to protecting the fairness and integrity of the esports industry,\u201d reads <a href=\"https:\/\/esic.gg\/sanction-outcome\/public-statement-on-disciplinary-action-against-participant-joel-joel-holmlund-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a statement<\/a>. \u201cCheating, corruption, and threats directed at integrity bodies will not be tolerated. We will continue to investigate and sanction any behaviour that undermines the values of competitive integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Jonno Nicholson <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/04\/esic-joel-lifetime-counter-strike-ban\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image credit: Radowslaw Makuch Swedish Counter-Strike player Joel \u2018joel\u2019 Holmlund has received a lifetime ban from the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC). The ban was a result of an investigation into several breaches of the Commission\u2019s code of conduct and anti-corruption code. Investigations began in August 2024 when Joel was competing during Season 2 of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":853198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2178,2130],"tags":[5410,9612],"class_list":["post-853197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-issues","category-lifetime","tag-issues","tag-lifetime"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}