Share. Three bans, two teams forced out of tournament. Three bans, two teams forced out of tournament.

A hacking scandal has rocked the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitive scene.

The news comes just days before the Dreamhack Winter 2014 Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS: GO) championship tournament due to take place from November 27 -30 in Jönköping, Sweden, with a prize pool of $250,000 up for grabs.

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The three players who were caught cheating are named as Hovik "KQLY" Tovmassian of e-sports team Titan, Simon "smn" Beck of Team Alternate, and Gordon "Sf" Giry of Epsilon. All were caught cheating via the Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC). It's alleged that the software used connected through a player’s Steam Workshop account.

All three players have been what is known as 'VAC Banned,' which means their participation in the Dreamhack Championship – and potentially future competitive play – is now over. As a result of this, both Titan and Epsilon have been kicked out of the tournament, which subsequently led to the release of both KQLY and Sf.

"Sf is obviously no longer part of the team," writes Robin “GMX” Stahmer of Epsilon, "but this is something that we must not forget. We’re not going to Dreamhack, and this is maybe one of the worst feelings I’ve had to endure. I wish it never happened, but it did, so now we must go on and forget this nightmare."

Mirroring Epsilon's sentiment, Titan team manager Jérôme "NiaK" Sudries says the group hasn't yet fully grasped the magnitude of what's happening, and that the ordeal is a "huge blow" to the players who have been training rigorously for the championship.

"More than three months of work just vanished," says NiaK. "Obviously, we firmly condemn the act [KQLY] has been accused of committing. As a professional player, it’s simply unthinkable to behave in such a way.

"Our huge disappointment is further reinforced by the decision not to allow any possibility for the team to attend this major. The players but also the partners, staff, and management of Titan have invested a great amount of work into this project; it is very hard to see everyone pay the price for an isolated case."

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Following the aftermath, KQLY took to Facebook to try and explain what had happened, confirming the ban and stating that it was indeed justified. KQLY explains that towards the end of August he was a put in touch with a program by fellow CS:GO player supex0. Apparently, supex0 claimed that many pro players were already using the cheating software before KQLY came along.

"I became interested," says KQLY. "He put the rights on for seven days, and like an idiot, the temptation was too great and I wanted to see what it was like on public servers and [matchmaking] .

"Eventually, I did not continue to use it. I had joined Titan and I did not need to take unnecessary risks when I had all that I needed: a high-level team [and] a solid structure. [But] my curiosity got the better of me, and now my CS career is over after twelve years on the game.

"I lost everything and I do not expect any compassion, I made a mistake and I will assume [responsibility]. Unfortunately everything stops here, and again, I'm really sorry to have disappointed."

In an interview with 99Damage, Niklas "Sliver" Timmermann of Team Alternate explains that disqualification from the tournament would be a "big blow" for the group. According to Silver, Team Alternate players were shocked by the revelation of cheating, partly due to the team's consistently stellar performances that showed "no specific abnormalities," i.e. cheating.

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Smn was also found using cheating software in the ESEA – an online community for eSports players to compete – ironically – without the use of cheats.

"After we initially waited on an appeal to the ESEA ban," says Silver, "we must now finally assume that Smn has used prohibited aids in his role as a player in Team Alternate. Of course, this is a stark contradiction to what Team Alternate stands for in eSports, so we would like to give our opponents, fans, and the CS:GO Community an apology for the behaviour of our player. In addition, the player is, of course, removed with immediate effect from the line-up and Alternate reserves the right to file legal charges against the player for his defamatory conduct."

How does the removal of Titan and Epsilon affect the Dreamhack tournament? On Saturday, November 22, a special 'Last Call' qualifier will be held in Stockholm, Sweden to replace the two teams.

"Earlier today the CS:GO community learned that a Titan player and an Epsilon player were VAC banned," reads a statement from Dreamhack. "This has been confirmed and, as a result of the team members’ actions, Titan and Epsilon's places in the tournament were revoked."

Dreamhack notes that Valve will be funding the travel and accommodation expenses for the yet-to-be-announced replacement teams.

For future updates, and the latest eSports news, keep it right here on IGN.

Wesley Copeland is a freelance news writer, but you probably already guessed that. For more obvious statements, you should probably follow him on Twitter.