We’re a few days into the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 RMR Open Qualifiers now, and one thing is becoming abundantly clear – the process has a huge cheating problem. A few times now, we’ve seen obvious cheaters progress through the rounds despite calls from the community.

Credit: PGL | Modified by Daniel Morris

The worst part is, after cheaters have progressed further into the bracket, nothing can be done to reinstate teams eliminated earlier in the qualifier. This means that legitimate teams will find themselves at the mercy of organizer Challengermode catching and banning the cheaters in a timely manner. Nothing so far suggests that is going to be the case.

Inherent problems with online qualifiers

Cheating at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 RMR Open Qualifiers was always going to happen, to some degree. In online qualifiers, it’s far easier to cheat than on LAN – especially when using the Akros anti-cheat system which many are totally unfamiliar with.

On top of this, the lack of team comms means that despite the rule against using coaches, there is nothing stopping a coach from watching the games live and communicating all necessary information to their players. The only way a team might get caught like this, is if they were to livestream themselves communicating to players. Surely, no one would be stupid enough to do that, right?

Instances of cheating in the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 RMR Open Qualifiers

The first major incident of cheating came between OG and V1dar Gaming. Initially, V1dar managed to beat OG in a narrow 11-13 match. It emerged the V1dar’s coach was live on Twitch the entire time, giving his players the right info in front of 700 people. They were swiftly disqualified.

Next, it was Movistar KOI’s turn to face a cheat. They lost against Never More, where a ‘top talent’ with just 300 hours in the game dominated the server. Again, Challengermode were quick to resolve the issue.

That was just in the 1st round of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 RMR Open Qualifiers. Round two has been no better so far. Already, we’ve seen supresse disqualified after numerous reports, as well as plenty of accusations surrounding Team QuackQuack and its player pyke in particular. QuackQuack lost in the Round of 32 to RUSH B, meaning they’re out regardless. Still, they could try again in the third and fourth Open Qualifiers, so hopefully the accusations are taken seriously.

Can you stop crying about pyke cheating? First i know for a fact he cant cheat, because: 1. They are playing on VAC secure servers 2. ⁠PIMP told me there is a third party anticheat You all just have skill issues, go practice nabs. | @LobanjicaCS on X

With a few days left of the RMR Open Qualifiers, we don’t exactly expect the situation to get better. There are likely a few teams out there trying their luck with cheats, just to see how far they can get. These guys are just the ones who have been caught so far.