Former NAVI pro calls out PALOMA for using cheats

Monte, an international CS:GO team led by former NAVI player Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev, has accused PALOMA, a sponsorless team from Poland, of cheating in the grand finals of the $20,000 online tournament European Pro League season six.

The Allegation:

Monte won the best-of-five series 3-0 (16-14 on Mirage, 16-12 on Nuke, and 16-14 on Ancient), but sdy was not satisfied with the victory. He claimed that PALOMA used cheats to gain an unfair advantage and urged the tournament organizers to ban them from future events.

Sdy posted several clips on Twitter to support his allegations, showing some suspicious plays by PALOMA players. For example, in one clip, Layner switched from a flashbang to his rifle and killed a Monte player who was about to peek from A bombsite on Nuke. In another clip, casey looked at the wall before jumping to avoid an AWP shot from A Door on Ancient.

“If you analyze their demos it’s obvious for any reasonable player that they’re cheating,” sdy wrote. “It’s a disgrace to our Counter-Strike scene, and I will not be silenced. You should use any anti-cheat, doesn’t matter which tournament it is.”

History:

Monte is ranked #39 in the CQ-Esports Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Ranking and has played 26 matches in the last month, winning 15 of them. PALOMA is a relatively unknown team that has not participated in any major tournaments. Neither team has commented on the cheating accusations yet.

The Polish team PALOMA consists of Layner, casey, OLIMP, sNx, and iso. They used to play for Permitta Esports, an esports organization founded in 2022. They left Permitta Esports in February 2023. And proceeded to compete as a sponsor-less team at the IEM Katowice 2023 play-in stage. They lost both of their matches against FURIA and Complexity.

Conclusion:

It’s doubtful that the clips shared by sdy will be enough to get PALOMA banned from future tournaments. But they may have to justify their actions to the European Pro League officials. And other organizers may check their recent demos before inviting them.

Image Source: ESL