The topic of crowd cheating in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports has also been a heated debate within the community. However, this discussion intensified further following the conclusion of FISSURE Playground 2.
During the semi-final between FURIA and Team Falcons, the audience’s cheers have been accused of alerting players to opponents’ locations, raising questions about competitive integrity.
During round 19 of Overpass, the crowd cheered louder when the crosshair of Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato moved over the outline of a Team Falcons player covered by a smoke grenade.
A second incident occurred on Nuke, when Team Falcons’ in-game leader (IGL) Damjan ‘kyxsan‘ Stoilkovski wiggled his crosshair over areas where an enemy could be. Some have accused that this was intended to entice the crowd to reveal information.
Former Complexity CS General Manager, Graham ‘messioso’ Pitt, shared his frustrations on social media, calling for harsh punishments for those involved. “Crowd cheating is one thing. Players enticing the crowd into cheating for them by wiggling their crosshair into smokes or walls is significantly worse and should be punished severely. Disgraceful behaviour.”
To prevent the crowd from spoiling the action further. FISSURE switched off the X-ray feature, which enables spectators to see the outlines of players during matches.
FURIA went on to defeat Team Falcons to advance to the Grand Final, where it beat The MongolZ to win the competition.
Are Crowd Cheating Measures Needed?
If the crowd is capable of providing teams with any kind of information during tournament matches, should action be taken to preserve the integrity of esports events in large arenas?
Following the actions of FISSURE, fans have shared their thoughts on how tournament organisers should prevent issues in future tournaments.
“Removing people from the crowd for cheating itself should be a standard,” commented one fan. “A player blatantly asking for the crowd to cheat for him should result in immediate TO [tournament organiser] action.”
The next Tier 1 event to feature a crowd is Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Chengdu, taking place from November 3rd to 9th, 2025. Ahead of the event, ESL revealed that the Group Stage will take place in front of a live audience for the first time.
