Counter Strike 2: Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) upgraded NO MERCY rifler 2xplayN suspension to lieftime ban..

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) announced on Sunday, via its official X (Twitter) account, that the suspension of 2xplayN, a former rifler of the Hungarian e-sports organization NO MERCY, has been upgraded from a 3–5 year ban to a lifetime ban.

According to ESIC's official statement, 2xplayN continued to post content online after his initial suspension, "boasting" about his involvement in "serious integrity breaches" for financial gain. The commission concluded that the player showed no signs of remorse or intent to reflect, consequently, following a review of his case, the ESIC decided to upgrade his suspension to a lifetime ban.

This makes him the second player from the NO MERCY roster to receive a lifetime ban.

Although the ESIC has not publicly disclosed how it learned of 2xplayN’s renewed involvement in illicit activities, reports from HLTV suggest a connection to a post the player previously made on X. In the post, he was pictured holding a large stack of cash with the caption: "2029 Roman Imperium Cup—stay tuned for my 'return of the king'."

Although the tweet was subsequently deleted, it had already been captured by observant users, and the matter was brought to light by an insider known as NarT.

On October 15, the ESIC announced that it would impose varying lengths of bans on the players currently on the NO MERCY roster.

According to the official statement released at the time, investigators discovered that the team’s players had engaged in sophisticated, coordinated sports betting via the platform Stake during the "Roman Imperium Cup" tournament this past March. They allegedly cheated by intentionally losing matches, a scheme that reportedly yielded as much as $4.5 million.

During the evidence-gathering phase of the investigation, it was revealed that 2xplayN’s personal account had previously featured content related to similar activities in 2024, which further exposed his involvement.

Ultimately, the ESIC confirmed that the entire NO MERCY squad had participated in the cheating scheme, leading to the decision to impose bans of varying durations on the club's players.

Below are the details regarding the initial suspension rulings taken by the ESIC against the players of the NO MERCY team:

IGL (In-Game Leader): kzy (Lifetime ban)

Rifler: James8k (Suspended until April 23, 2031)

Rifler: perakokanje (Suspended until April 23, 2031)

Rifler: 2xplayN (Suspended until April 23, 2029)

Rifler: srtn1 (Suspended until April 23, 2029)

Initially, the ESIC had opted for more lenient penalties for srtn1 and 2xplayN, by imposing only three-year bans, taking into account that the former's testimonies were incomplete and that, the latter being young and inexperienced, might have been coerced or incited by others. However, as 2xplayN failed to mend their ways, he have now permanently forfeited his professional Counter Strike 2 (CS2) e-sports player career.

Image source: Internet / 2xplayN’s official X (Twitter) account