Maelstorm: "It was explicitly stated that this bug is prohibited"

Russian commentator and analyst Vladimir Maelstorm Kuzminov commented on the situation redraging the Smoke of Deceit bug, which was used during official matches in the closed qualifiers for ESL One Raleigh 2025. According to him, many teams were aware of the ban, and this information was confirmed through managers. The post was published in Kuzminov's personal Telegram channel.

The commentator stated that the bug had existed for about six months but had not been officially banned until a certain point. The ban on abusing the Smoke Check Bug was officially introduced during ESL One Bangkok 2024.

Yes, it's been known about for a long time, but it's recently been banned. It was banned in Bangkok, to be more precise. The bug has been around for six months, but from Bangkok onward, that's it. Further use of it will be punished

Kuzminov also noted that excuses based on ignorance of the rules won’t help avoid punishment. However, he admitted that some participants might not have seen the warning.

So all these excuses like 'we didn’t know' don’t really work. If that's the case, everyone caught could be banned from the tournament. Not just could be – they really should be. However, again, I don’t rule out that someone might not have seen the warning. That’s their problem, but in that case, something like this could be done: "Alright, now everyone knows, so we forgive everyone who used it BEFORE, but from this moment on, it’s over." You can’t ban everyone?

Let us remind you that the tournament operator ESL has launched an investigation into incidents redraging the bug and is conducting a thorough review. Members of Team Spirit and Tundra Esports rosters have fallen under suspicion.

Earlier, CyberScore.live reported that NAVI Junior was disqualified from ESL One Raleigh 2025 for bug abuse.