The Arrmy Open league play-offs for the thirteenth season are currently underway. There are, of course, plenty of partners amongst the teams, but in today’s feature we’ll focus solely on the blue ones. By ‘the blue ones’, we mean NSQ, as something rather unusual happened during their match. Well, we could describe it as a rare occurrence, but of late, it’s slowly becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Cheaters in Arrmy?
In the second round, NSQ faced off against “89team”. On paper, the match looked very exciting: first, our partner won Ancient (13:5), then lost Overpass (11:13), and everything came down to Mirage. On Mirage, we witnessed two overtime periods. Ultimately, our partner won the third map 22–19. But what’s all the fuss about?
From our partner’s tweet alone, we can gather that, in their view, the opposition didn’t play fair; a 24-minute highlights clip of the entire match is available on the NSQ YouTube channel, and the description includes the following information:
Even before the match began, worrying facts were emerging about the opposing team and their history with VAC bans. The match itself added fuel to the fire, and the player who was mysteriously brought on from the bench for the third map turned out to be a common cheater, as revealed by the post-match demo – not to mention his strange links to account names, as well as an account created 43 days ago with just 30 hours of gameplay.
‘Fresh’ profiles?
We checked the profiles and one of the players on the opposing team has a VAC ban, which he received almost a year ago. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be a CS:GO VAC ban. If we were to try and explain the opposing players’ performance in any way, it would probably only be that they’re playing on smurf accounts and have an above-average feel for the game. However, the mere use of smurf accounts is prohibited in most leagues and tournaments.
Most accounts banned for using cheats (VAC + e.g. Faceit ban) have a private profile on Steam. Of course, a private profile isn’t an indicator of whether someone is using, for example, a wallhack or other such cheats. Rather, if someone uses such cheats on a public profile, they are, in a way, providing grounds for accusations.
A talent on a par with Bożydar?
It cannot be ruled out that the team has simply started playing Counter-Strike, but if you’re starting out in CS, you begin with MM matches and Faceit. In short, with strictly ranked play, rather than so-called official matches. It should be a natural occurrence for players to make mistakes. After all, with around 500 matches on Faceit and no more than 1,500 hours in Counter-Strike 2, their understanding of team play is rather limited. Assuming a player starts their grind with typical ranked matches on Faceit or Valve’s matchmaking system.
Neither the players nor the opposing team have been banned yet. We’ve been informed that the report is still under review, and we’ll likely find out the decision in due course via NSQ’s social media channels. Looking at the POV clip itself, it’s difficult to draw any clear conclusions, as it’s hard to assess the situation from a single perspective. In the round with the score at 13:12, the accused (awp8989) seemed almost able to predict the future. He positioned himself in the window and waited for the NSQ player to return to the bench – arguably the strangest move of the match, as seen in this clip. Then, in a 1v1 situation, the aforementioned player won the clutch by bypassing the entire Site B, playing a game of cat and mouse. If that was just a stroke of luck, we’d advise the player to have a go at the lottery – maybe he’ll get lucky.
It’s hard to say…
Based on the POV clip, but then… we received a recording, a clip from the demo, which seems to confirm the theory that “awp8989” isn’t playing fair. At least in some rounds. Thanks to NSQ, we can see what the clutch (and more) looked like in a 1v2 situation, from his POV. Bearing in mind that the player is (probably) playing on a new account, this is quite a strange situation. The only way to explain it is that the player in question had previously used other accounts on which he’d developed this feel for the game. However, with that level of game sense, he’s unlikely to have stayed in the Open division for long. He must have been playing at a higher level, if not for a better team, which is why this situation is somewhat strange.
@neptyksquad WE PLAYED AGAINST A CHEATER IN AN OFFICIAL MATCH! #cs2 #arrmy #rising #cheater #fraudster #dc #foryou ♬ original sound – NeptykSquad – NeptykSquad
A few rounds later, the player had something resembling an aimlock. Some situations like this can be explained away as a coincidence. Sometimes the models line up in such a way that even a clean player can aim through a wall. In this case, however, the movement was, in our opinion, too perfect to be described as such. It looks as though the player accidentally activated aimlock, or forgot to turn it off.
Bad luck for Arrmy’s teammates?
This is already the second instance in which one of our teammates has fallen victim; a few days ago we reported on an incident in an Excurity Gaming match, where the opposing team used cheats. In that case (at least for the moment), the situation is slightly different. The situation has already been investigated by the administrators, and the opposing team finished Season 13 with their accounts suspended. In the case of the latest incident, the administrators are still investigating. Just as a referee reviews a penalty on VAR (usually), the longer they take to make a decision, the less likely it is that a penalty will be awarded. Will there be no ban for awp8989 and 89team in this case?
Judge for yourselves
Given the organisers’ lack of a decision so far, we won’t be passing judgement here on either the 89team or awp8989. As we mentioned earlier, the situation is strange, to say the least. If we had to take a guess, we’d be inclined to say that the player was using performance-enhancing aids, but only from the extra time onwards, and he’s not doing a bad job of hiding it. Nevertheless, the situation isn’t black and white. You’ll have to draw your own conclusions, but if awp8989 himself and the team would like to comment on this, please join us on our Discord.
Following the administrators’ decision, another article will be published verifying our hypotheses and setting out the final decision.
Update 11/08/2025
We have received information from an NSQ representative that, during the verification process, the player refused to cooperate, and the administration decided to ban him from their platform for a period of one month.
NSQ (x.com — TikTok — YouTube — team profile)
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