Excitement over the PGL Major has been overshadowed by community outrage following PGL's decision to allow teams to use a controversial "jump bug" following BIG's use of it in a surprise victory over FaZe Clan in the first round of the group stage.

The bug occurs at certain walls where a player can "bunny hop" in order to see over the edge without opposing players seeing them or being able to retaliate and then falling back down silently.

The decision to allow the bug has faced widespread condemnation from players and fans alike, with a 4,000-person poll from Fnatic finding that 70 percent of respondents feel the bug should be banned.

The jump bug has really taken over the #PGLMajor conversation... What do you think? 🤔 — FNATIC (@FNATIC) July 17, 2017

Though teams have reportedly made a gentlemen's agreement not to use the bug against each other, some have alleged that a number of players have continued to make use of it.

The players got together here at the Major. All teams agreed not to use the crouch jump exploit. Great to see the players working together! — Scott Smith (@SirScoots) July 17, 2017

We have agreed on a gentleman agreement between mouz and us, not to use the jump glitch in an abusive way. — FaZe karrigan (@karriganCSGO) July 17, 2017

Analyst Dustin "dusT" Mouret said that even with informal agreements made in good faith, there's still a chance for players to go against them when they aren't backed by collective organizations such as unions.

"While there is certainly honor in a gentleman’s agreement it’s hard to know if it will even work. What is to stop a team from going against it? Do you think a team with their tournament life on the line might not think to use it to save their team?" DusT told theScore esports.

"It becomes very murky very easily if your back is up against the wall. It would be great if we truly did have a formed player union that could discuss situations like this with TOs. I would rather it be in an official capacity that actually carried true weight rather than nothing more than a handshake."

Though many have criticized PGL's decision not to ban the bug, dusT points out that the situation is not so clear-cut.

"It certainly seems like an exploit that definitely needs to be removed in future play or ruled against at future events. At the very least there needs to be debate over allowing this in future play between TOs, players, etc," he said.

"However, with it occurring after the event had already started and with no rules in the book against it, it becomes a murky situation. It almost feels like one of those damned if you do damned if you don’t moments when it comes to ruling on it. On one hand you want to stick to your rules, but on the other hand the exploit seems so disruptive that you want to remove it immediately."

According to caster and analyst John "BLU" Mullen, while Valve should work to remove the bug as soon as possible, if PGL had placed a ban on the bug it could have opened the door to a wide range of difficult-to-prove accusations.

If you think BIG are only winning matches because of a jump bug you're deluded. — Redeye (@PaulChaloner) July 17, 2017

"Since it's so easy to do, happens so quickly, and in my eyes has a high likelihood of being triggered accidentally; if it were actually outlawed at this event I have a bad feeling the event would turn into a finger pointing game trying to catch people using it, whether they meant to or not," BLU said. "And that would be much worse in my eyes compared to just letting it stand until the devs can fix it, which one would hope would be done relatively quickly."

However, the most significant question remains as the event moves from the group stage to the playoffs: has this bug substantially impacted the competitive integrity of the Major?

According to dusT, there may be no way to tell.

"It is hard to attach an actual value to the impact the jump bug has had. I certainly don’t think it is fair to suggest that some results were totally dependent on using the bug," he said.

"However, I have no idea what value to assign to its impact."

Dennis "Tarmanydyn" Gonzales is a news editor for theScore esports who enjoys whiskey, D&D and first-picking Oracle a P90 my Souvenir Negev Discipline Priest Pharah a silenced Cavity 9mm. You can follow him on Twitter.

Sasha Erfanian is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.