During an online qualifier match for the DreamHack Rotterdam event, a player named 'holmyz' for Pharsyde hit a ridiculous running headshot on an enemy covered by smoke. While the kill itself is questionable, it has also raised conversation about whether he should be allowed to play, given his banned status on another platform.


During the European Open qualifier for the DreamHack Open Rotterdam event that’s scheduled for later in October, pharsyde defeated The Dice 16-11 on Inferno to advance to the next round. Their next scheduled opponents, RADNICKI, forfeited due to refusing to play against pharsyde.

This kill by Pharsyde’s holmyz has sparked yet another discussion about the legitimacy of this European squad:


RADNICKI player Petar 'HOLMES' Demitrijevic made a point the address the illegitimacy when he announced their forfeiture:

“you cannot beat completely unknown new upcoming talents with private profiles and barely played pugs on their ESEA/FACEit matches”

Won against #1 seed @GambitEsports youngsters in @DreamHack Rotterdam Open Qualifier but you cannot beat completely unknown new upcoming talents with private profiles and barely played pugs on their ESEA/FACEit matches so we forfeit our match against them after first half in 1/4 — Petar Dimitrijevic (@HOLMEScsgo) September 21, 2019


On FACEIT, both holmyz and his teammate mauw1 have been banned for cheating, but they have not been banned on ESEA, which is the anti-cheat being used for these DreamHack qualifiers. Holymz has been linked to cheating in the past, when pro player Kristian ‘akEz’ Kornbakk provided an alleged recording of holmyz admitting to purchasing and using cheats:


“I haven’t played legit in like two weeks. I been playing these shit tournaments and fucking won but someone is trying to expose me and they need to look demos etc, they wont find any cheat, but other things they might expose, its not good, but I think it will be fine.”

After the forfeit by RADNICKI, Pharsyde have moved on to the closed qualifiers to face GamerLegion, which features CS:GO legend Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman, who has sounded off about this team in the past. When the most recent clip went viral, dennis called out ESEA and DreamHack directly about the alleged cheaters:


“I've played so many of your tournaments and I've enjoyed them all but this is just too much. You need to get your shit together and ban these cheaters. Can't believe you're actually letting them play.”

.@ESEA @DreamHackCSGO i've played so many of your tournaments and i've enjoyed them all but this is just too much. You need to get your shit together and ban these cheaters. Can't believe you're actually letting them play. — dennis (@denniscsgod) September 21, 2019

Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin, in-game leader for Team Vitality, also chimed in and suggested that FACEIT and ESEA share a cheaters database:

This is bullshit, I’ve experienced it first hand (in a minor qualifier no less), it’s about time the main online qualifier organizers (Faceit & ESEA) have some shared database about cheaters or something to avoid having to ban the same people twice. https://t.co/sxc7PSQaqP — Alex (@Vitality_ALEX) September 21, 2019

Currently the match between pharsyde and GamerLegion is still scheduled for September 22. It will be a best-of-three series.