What’s the story?
According to a report released by video game website Kotaku Australia, a user of the first person shooter game Counter Strike was banned by ESEA (E-Sports Entertainment Association) for 1000 years after he allegedly harassed a minor.
The ban was issued out to Reece Bloom who uses the alias ‘bloominator’, until June 6 in 3016, or 365,000 days to be precise. The official reason for the suspension has been listed as “Malicious Activity” after ESEA conducted a thorough scan on the chat logs and photos exchanged between Bloom and the alleged 15-year-old.
The chat logs are still available online and show Bloom stating things such as, “there’s just something about being able to influence young minds” and “I just don’t care that I’m a paedophile”.
When asked for a comment on the ban, an ESEA representative said, “Bloom was banned due to his interactions with a member of the community and these types of actions are not acceptable.”
In case you did not know
Bloom was a member of Armor Esports, although most of his profile in the Counter-Strike community was courtesy of his time on the ESEA Invite team Exertus. Team Exertus which once sported CS veterans such as Mike “shroud” Grzesiek and Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar, however, has now been disbanded.
The heart of the matter
Bloom’s ban makes him the highest profile player in North America, and the most recent player in Counter-Strike history, to be effectively abandoned from the gaming community for his behaviour outside of the game.
Bloom later took to social media as he posted an apology on Twitter. However, his account has since been deleted but a copy of the apology was cached by Google where Bloom stated, “No excuses, obviously incredibly stupid of me to do what I did. But please keep the hate on me, don’t give crap to any of my friends or organisations I’ve associated with. I hope some people can forgive me, but I understand if not.”
What’s next
ESEA’s statement did not outline any specific actions as a reason of the ban, but stated, “any further reports of similar actions will be taken very seriously and will be fully investigated by our team.”
Sportskeeda’s take
A serious action and thorough scrutiny by the Esports organisation will likely prevent such cases from happening in the future.
