The coach infringed upon Valve’s strict rules against coach intervention outside of tactical timeouts.
Due to violating Valve’s rules, Alan ‘adrrr’ Riveros has been banned from participating in the rest of the IEM Cologne Major.
After being given “multiple warnings” for infractions of the ruleset, the coach was officially banned by ESL after he gave Eduardo ‘dumau’ Wolkman a “thumbs up” gesture after the end of a tactical timeout.
Here is ESL’s full statement on the ruling.
Valve’s strictness on coach participation
After the abuse of a coach bug that surfaced during the COVID-19-affected Counter-Strike scene, which allowed coaches to see enemy positions on the map, Valve strongly intervened.
They created a rule for Valve-sanctioned events that coaches could only be allowed to communicate with players during tactical timeouts and halftime breaks, down to non-verbal gestures.
Since adrrr had repeatedly committed offenses at the event, ESL took charge of banning him for the rest of the event.
