Nikhil ‘forsaken’ Kumawat has completed his five-year suspension for utilizing cheating software in CS:GO tournaments and is now eligible to participate in Major events.
The now-retired player concluded his ban from the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) in 2023; however, he remained barred from competing in Valve events until September 19, 2024, due to updates in the developer’s tournament guidelines introduced in 2021.
Forsaken is notorious within the Counter-Strike community and esports for being caught using a cheat program during the eXTREMESLAND Asia Finals on October 14, 2018. Anti-cheat systems flagged the player’s stage PC during his first match, and officials discovered unauthorized software running in the background of his computer.
In a now-iconic video, forsaken attempted to close and delete the cheating program while an official was overseeing his computer. Nevertheless, the tournament administration managed to recover the cheating software file, which was deceptively named “word.exe.”
The exact moment when admins at #eXTREMESLAND2018 caught forsaken and he attempted to delete the hack pic.twitter.com/rZG7aYBdbD
— CSGO2ASIA (@CSGO2ASIA) October 19, 2018
The OpTic India team faced disqualification from the tournament, forsaken was removed from the team, which later disbanded. He received bans from both Valve and ESIC and promptly erased his social media accounts.
In an interview shortly following his suspension, he expressed regret, stating he wished he never played the game and admitted to cheating, believing he could escape without consequences after deceiving his teammates during an in-person bootcamp.
“I saw the gaps in the system and exploited them for my own foolish, selfish desires. And I hold nothing but remorse,” forsaken stated in 2018.
Since the incident, the Indian player has become a significant figure in esports history, with numerous video documentaries detailing the situation and its ramifications on the Counter-Strike landscape. Forsaken’s choice of name for his cheating software has also turned into a meme due to its blatant nature.
Though forsaken is not expected to return to the esports scene or contests in CS2, as he has remained silent on the matter and disengaged from the community since 2018, he technically could join if he chooses to play CS2.
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