Counter-Strike 2 Pro Banned for a Month After Controversial Racial Sticker Scandal and Cover-Up

Valve gave Counter-Strike 2 players the opportunity to place five stickers on a weapon hoping that players would create some unique designs. However, some players are abusing this system. Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, a player for 9Pandas, is one of those players who thought it would be funny to create an offensive design using stickers. As a result, the gamer has been banned for 30 days from ESL Challenger League (ECL) Season 49: Europe.

Krad had the audacity to claim that he was not aware that the word was written on the weapon as he bought it a week ago. CS2 fans quickly hit him with enough evidence to prove that he was lying and knew what he was doing. 9Pandas also issued a statement, apologizing for not paying attention to the weapon that Krad was using in the professional match.

A Professional Counter-Strike 2 Player Got Banned For Using A Weapon With A Racial Slur

Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, a professional Counter-Strike 2 player, received a month-long ban from ESL Challenger League (ECL) Season 49: Europe for using a weapon on January 21st that spelled out a racial slur. Fans have criticized his team, 9Pandas, for its carelessness as such skins shouldn’t be used, especially for an e-sports event.

As viewers took a screenshot and shared his Deagle craft on X, Krad was heavily criticized for such immature behavior. There was even some internal conflict within the CS2 community as some players tried to defend Krad for the weapon craft. Initially, he was banned for 20 days, however, his apology made things worse as he decided to lie.

Krad’s Apology Further Infuriated The Fans

In a now-deleted X post, Krad claimed that he bought the skin a week ago and since he plays with his left hand, the skin was mirrored. He made it seem like he wasn’t able to notice the skin, however, fans immediately resurfaced his old streams to prove that he has owned that skin for a while now, proving that he was lying in his statement.

9Pandas also issued a statement in Russian, apologizing for the incident and promising to increase their pre-match checks. They also added that players will be trained to prevent similar incidents in the future. As per 9Pandas, Krad “immediately deleted the skin and expressed regret” after the incident.

Just like Krad, 9Pandas also claimed that the weapon went unnoticed because of the left-handed model. It’s certainly disheartening to see that even pros, who are often idolized by others, are promoting such behavior. The gaming industry is transforming drastically as players are now hit with more strict penalties for such behavior.

The idea of stickers has made the Counter-Strike 2 skins scene even crazier as players are now able to create more unique and rare skins.