After his VAC ban during a game against Hellraisers, Joel ”emilio” Mako hasn’t been able to compete in CS:GO.
He was looking to change that at the upcoming Birdie LAN in Uppsala, Sweden, but now the arrangers are removing his eligibility to play.
– We’ve discussed this internally and we can’t accept a player that has an active VAC ban, Birdie chairman Lezgin Bakircioglu tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Joel ”emilio” Mako caused a stir in the CS:GO community when he became the first player to be VAC banned during an official game. After the incident he was fired from Team Property and forbidden to participate in any official Valve events. He claimed his innocence for the longest time but recently admitted to Aftonbladet Esport that he had in fact cheated, during matchmaking.

”I know I’m not done with CS”

Last week he made it clear he was coming back to the competitive scene and was looking to participate at the Birdie LAN in Uppsala, Sweden.
– Recently things haven’t been easy for me because I haven’t had any competitions to participate in because of the incident. But I’ve been playing actively and streamed as much as possible for a long period of time because I know I’m not done with CS, he told Aftonbladet Esport.
He also said he’s learned a lesson from the incident.
– I’ve learned a lot in a short time, and especially grown. I can promise that cheating won’t happen again, even though it was fun in matchmaking it ruined my career more or less, and there’s nothing that’s worth the risk. I’m sorry I didn’t think of the consequences beforehand.

”Hasn’t made it clear to us there was an active VAC ban”

But now, the $5800 prize pool tournament where he planned his comeback will ban him from participating.
– He hasn’t made it clear to us there was a history with an active VAC ban, he asked us about the general rules and we pointed him to the general rules since the CS:GO rules weren’t done.
– But later we saw everything that was written about him and understood it was the same person. After that we’ve discussed internally and have come to the conclusion that we can’t accept a player that has an active VAC ban, Birdie chairman Lezgin Bakircioglu tells Aftonbladet Esport.

He also says that the organization don’t have enough resources to gauge every single player applying.
– This is the kind of thing you catch as you go along, but since he’s been so obvious about it we could catch it early.

When Aftonbladet Esport reach Joel ”emilio” Mako the former Team Property-player have just been told the news.
– There’s not much to say regarding this. Even Messi, who is the greatest football player of all time have people who hate him, he says to Aftonbladet Esport and continues:
– Of course this is a big setback for me. I had planed to go and compete with some well renowned players. But considering this there’s not much I can do. I will stream and play – when I have time.