Vitality fined $10.000 by ESIC for "stream sniping"

The French Vitality was found to have played the official stream in the background of their setting, whilst playing against Team Liquid and Complexity at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020. There have been many takes on what kind of punishment would be fitting for this sort of "Breach of Conduct". Esport expert Richard Lewis stated that he found a ban from the on-going $1 million event to be fitting - you can read more about his assessment and thoughts here:

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/renowned-expert-vitality-should-disqualified-from-blast-premier-global-final/"}]

However, ESIC didn't find any signs of the Vitality roster gaining benefits or advantages due to the rulebreaking and therefore found it unnecessary or even unfair to hold the roster accountable and responsible for the breach of conduct. They decided not to ban, disqualify or suspend Vitality:

"ESIC’s assessment of the VOD footage and player camera footage does not suggest that the players were given information derived from the stream or that they gained any advantage in their matches as a result of the Code violation by the organization."

They furthermore explained in their statement exactly why they chose to fine the organization instead of banning or suspending the roster from participation in the tournament:

"ESIC's decision to fine the organization rather than disqualify, suspend or ban the team is predicated on ESIC's review of the evidence which indicates that taking an action in the alternative would have been a disproportionate and unfair outcome for the negligence of the organization's staff, who, whilst negligent, had no intentional malice in their actions."

Team Vitality's management has accepted responsibility for the breach of conduct and will be paying the issued fine as a result of them breaking the rules by displaying the stream whilst playing in a official match.