Liquid’s rifler Mareks YEKINDAR Galinskys admitted that in the lost quarter-final BLAST.tv Major Paris 2023 match against Apeks, he used the crowd's shouts to calculate the opponents' positions.
At one point, the audience helped YEKINDAR push the enemy through the smoke, which ultimately helped him win a clutch 1v2.
On the Overpass, tips from the crowd of spectators gave Mareks an idea about the presence of an opponent with a pistol around the corner. It is not known whether the Latvian would have checked the position otherwise.
Despite such a not-so-fair game, Liquid lost both maps, left the tournament, and YEKINDAR later, in one of the post-match interviews, reported that BLAST gave him a warning, reminding him that his actions violated the rules.
Using crowd reaction in LAN tournaments is nothing new. The most vivid example in this regard is Astralis fans, who don’t hesitate to help their players unfairly. In 2019, a large scandal erupted when spectators in a match against MOUZ (mousesports back then) at the ESL Pro League Season 10 helped the Danes clean up obscure positions and uplifts.
A similar thing also happened at IEM Rio Major 2022, when FURIA fans at the home major also gave signals to the Brazilian team.
Such cases only remind us of the urgent need for high-quality sound insulation in the booths with players to guarantee the fairest competitive environment.
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