Renowned expert: Vitality should be disqualified from BLAST Premier Global Final

The prominent esports expert Richard Lewis believes that Vitality should be thrown out of the on-going $1 Million event, owing to revealing evidence of stream sniping. Lewis has in a video for Dexerto, expressed his views on the matter where the British expert explains that he personally thinks that the Frenchmen should be disqualified.

“Having the broadcast stream visible during the progress of the match, usually on a second monitor, sometimes called 'ghosting'”- ESIC’s official description of stream sniping

Vitality's alleged stream sniping incident against Liquid

 “The only wat you’re going to get on top of this stream sniping thing is to do something drastic to the teams I.e., that zero-tolerance policy we were all talking about. I would have disqualified Vitality. Because once that happens, you’re never going to have to deal with it again” – Lewis says.

In the video, Lewis explains how several clips and videos have emerged of Vitality having the match stream running in the background, while playing an official at BLAST Premier Global Final against Liquid. And owing to ESIC or the Esports Integrity Commission’s directions from last month, where the esports watchdog gave out a statement, explaining that there will be a zero-tolerance stance from now on regarding stream sniping, Lewis believes that the Frenchmen has violated the rulebook. Lewis calls out BLAST, to take action concerning the incident.

ESIC's statement regarding stream sniping from last month

Full video featuring Richard Lewis

Stream sniping has been a major talking point in the CS:GO world for some time now, with several incidents having occurred on smaller levels but also at tier-1 events as BLAST Premier Global Final. The thing with stream sniping is that the teams and players can benefit from vital information regarding their opponents economy, default positions and more, even though the match stream has a significant delay.

We have contacted BLAST Premier, the tournament organizer behind BLAST Premier Global Final, for a comment. We will update the article if a potential comment appears.

Update:

Esports Operations Manager at BLAST, Robert Mulgan confirms a joint investigation with ESIC of the incident.