RobbaN on ESIC ruling: "I feel this is totally unfair"

The former FaZe coach has given his side of what happened in the 2017 ECS match that resulted in a 5.5-month ban.

Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström, one of the 37 coaches or former coaches who were on Monday banned by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for the use of the spectator bug, has issued a statement regarding the one instance in 2017 for which he has been handed a 5.5-month suspension.

The 35-year-old, who is currently a manager for FaZe, was found to have used the bug for 17 rounds in a 1-16 defeat to Astralis in ECS Season 3, in May 2017.

"I want to explain today's announcement from my point of view as I feel this is totally unfair," he says. "I directly joined the coach slot and I see that my point of view was stuck over the A site on Train. I am then reconnecting a few times and I'm still stuck. The players join and the match is about to start and I think that my view will go back to my team when they start the match, as there is always a restart before the match goes live. It’s not happening and I'm still stuck, so at that point I make what I consider to be an honorable decision and tell my team I have this view, I mute my microphone and I don't talk at all during this full map.

"The following day we have another match and I get this view again. I now figure it’s not a one time thing, it’s a real bug. I immediately write the admin directly that I had the same bug the match before, and now again. I clearly state exactly which view I had the match before and that I now have the same view. This time I reconnect after my players joined and it worked fine. After this time, I don’t think I ever see it again."

RobbaN's plead is centred around the fact that he did what he believed was right in unfamiliar circumstances. "I did not ask for this advantage and tried to get rid of this view before the match started," he says. "In the heat of the moment, I felt like the most fair decision was to mute my microphone and to not provide any info to my team, as I was stuck in that view and watched the match from this angle, which sucked as I couldn’t even say anything at all. I could not help my team. For someone with an understanding of CS, you can see I’m not abusing this bug. The tactics are called in freezetime by our in-game leader and are not changed by the view that I had."

The Swede, who represented storied teams like Begrip, SK and NiP during his playing days, is worried that his reputation will be tainted by being put in the same group as coaches who willingly and repeatedly abused the bug.

"Unfortunately, some of you might still think I abused this bug," he adds. "I’ve been around the CS community for 20 years, more or less, see myself as a very loyal guy... and now my name is listed among others who actually abused and cheated, which makes me feel sick. I feel I’m being punished for something I did not do and that it should be obvious in my case."

ESIC's investigation, which is still underway, does offer a way for affected parties to appeal the rulings through the Independent Disciplinary Panel.