Professional CS2 player Adam "nbgee12" Zanzul stole SSDs to set up computers for three participants of IEM Dallas 2024 while under the influence of banned substances. The esports athlete was apprehended by the police — he received a ban from attending the tournament and a permanent ban on FACEIT.
Nbgee12 confessed to his actions during a broadcast with professional CS2 player Collin "CoJoMo" Moren. Zanzul explained that he entered the venue's storage room at 4 a.m. via an overhead passage between the hotel where he was staying and the IEM Dallas 2024 arena. According to the esports athlete, the security guard let him in despite the late hour and the player not having any badges. He broadcasted the incident to friends on Discord.
In the end, nbgee12 took SSDs intended for Jake "Stewie2k" Yip, Nikola "NiKo" Kovac, and Guy "Nertz" Ilyuts. Later, he arrived at the IEM Dallas 2024 venue, where he was detained by the police after being identified from surveillance camera footage. ESL representatives confiscated the storage devices from the esports athlete but did not press charges of theft. However, he was prohibited from attending the championship matches.
G2 Esports' sniper, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, commented on the theft of SSDs intended for his teammates at IEM Dallas 2024 for CS2. The esports athlete shared his opinion on the situation on his personal Telegram channel.
"At the championship in Dallas, I found out that some guy stole SSDs from NiKo and Stewie and wanted to download cheats on them)). What a crazy idea to even come up with such a thing"
Later, nbgee12 also received a permanent ban on FACEIT. Before this, he was permanently banned on ESEA for attempting to bypass other sanctions, was removed from the FACEIT Pro League for match-fixing attempts, and was repeatedly punished on the same platform for offensive behavior. Two months had passed since the end of his previous ban before the attempt to steal SSDs at the tournament.
IEM Dallas 2024 took place from May 27 to June 2 in the USA. 16 teams competed for a prize pool of $250,000 and a slot at IEM Cologne 2024. G2 Esports emerged as the champion, with stand-in Stewie2k, defeating Team Vitality in the final with a score of 2:1.