word.exe culprit's Valve ban expires today
Indian Counter-Strike player Nikhil "forsaken" Kumawa’s ban from Valve-sponsored events will expire today, almost six years after the infamous moment where he was caught cheating on LAN. Forsaken’s ban issued by ESIC expired one year ago.
In October 2018, forsaken and the recently signed OpTic India roster were competing at the eXTREMESLAND 2018 tournament, when forsaken was caught using cheats during a technical pause on Cache.
The viral moment caught on camera shows forsaken attempting to hide the cheats program from the referee, who has to forcibly hold forsaken’s hands away from the mouse and keyboard. Forsaken was also found to be using cheats at an ESL India event.
OpTic India was disqualified from eXTREMESLAND 2018, OpTic terminated forsaken’s contract, and the rest of the roster was released by the organization. In addition to creating the now popular “word.exe” meme, the incident also drastically set back the development of Indian Counter-Strike. OpTic itself left Counter-Strike altogether just a year later, after varying success with both NA and EU rosters.
You can watch the exact moment forsaken was caught cheating below.
