After a troubling handful of days, the nightmare is over. Professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players are once again allowed to commit suicide as part of competition. An update earlier this week to the Intel Extreme Masters rulebook, in partnership with ESL, proved so unpopular that it’s already been rescinded.
The rule, as it was implemented in the IEM Season 14 rulebook on November 4, said “a player is not allowed to intentionally cause suicides of their player character. This includes using the ‘kill’ command or using map features to deny kills to the opposing team (such as jumping off on Vertigo).”
The new CS:GO suicide rule could’ve cut off some important strategic avenues. A suicide will reward the opposing team with less money in the next round, so there can be a good reason to go for a last-minute self-kill to deny the extra cash to your opponents. IEM says the restriction was added to “discourage actions that negatively affected the competition based on recent experiences and community feedback in the German ESL National Championship.”
Either way, things in one of the world’s biggest FPS games are back to normal, effective immediately. “After a careful internal review, we are reverting this decision,” IEM says in the announcement.
“We will engage in a deeper discussion about the rule in question with the Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association to ensure that all efforts to improve the viewing experience for fans at home are fully aligned with all relevant stakeholders.”