Professional soccer player Gabriel Jesus has been banned from Counter-Strike 2 and has appealed to developer Valve to overturn the ban on his account.
Jesus, who plays for Arsenal in the Premier League, tweeted earlier today that he had been given a VAC ban on his Steam account. And asked the official Counter-Strike account to help him get access to the game back, as he believes this ban is unfair. In the tweet, he also linked to his Steam profile which shows it has a game ban that was given out two days ago.
Counter-Strike skin trading service CS.MONEY has reported that the in-game items attached to Jesus’ account are worth around $38,000, all of which are now lost unless the ban is overturned.
Getting a VAC ban overturned is not easy, with Valve typically refusing to overturn bans unless there is obvious evidence of a mistake. We currently do not know what Jesus was banned for. Or of course, if he actually broke any of the Steam terms of service that would warrant a ban.
However, given his standing in the mainstream consciousness and his love of the game, it would not be a surprise to see the ban overturned. Having a fan such as Jesus will obviously introduce the game to more people and likely grow its player base further.
Jesus is not the only pro soccer player known to be an avid CS2 player.
His fellow countryman Neymar is also known to be a CS player and has interacted and played with many pro-CS players over the years.
The ban comes as Counter-Strike 2 is finally starting to hit its stride. After a rough launch, the game is slowly getting better and another large update is expected in the coming days. After a disjointed year the pro scene is now seeing some stability, with top tournaments returning to regular schedules after the disruption the launch of CS2 brought last year. So with the game only getting better, it is a rough time for Jesus to get banned, although with his salary it likely won’t be difficult to set up a new account and rebuild his inventory.
If the ban isn’t overturned then he can at least attend the BLAST Spring Finals, which will take place in London in July. As that will be in the off-season for the Premier League and will be in the city where he currently plays he has no excuse not to attend and see some of the best CS2 players in action.
