How vsm persevered through a ban and finally reached a CSGO Major FluxoFor several years, Vinicius \u2018vsm\u2019 Moreira was unable to play at CSGO Majors because of an old VAC ban. At the BLAST Paris Major, his dream finally comes true. Of the 25 Major rookies competing at the BLAST Paris Major, no one is enjoying this moment as much as vsm. For many years, it seemed as if this would never happen. In November 2018, the Brazilian player was indefinitely banned by Valve after an ESL investigation confirmed that an old Steam account with a VAC ban in CS:GO from 2013 (when he was just 13 years old) belonged to him. Back then, it was almost a career death sentence. Players with a VAC ban attached to their names were barred from Majors, with no formal appeal process. Elias \u2018Jamppi\u2019 Olkkonen, a highly touted player from Finland, ended up moving to Valorant because of his VAC ban, which cost him a contract with OG and consigned him to a peripheral role on ENCE\u2019s team. vsm was one of the hottest prospects in Brazil at the time. Yet because of the ban, many doors were suddenly closed to him. The devastating blow, he notes, curtailed his progress. \u201cThere was a decline as a player,\u201d he tells Dexerto. \u201cI was depressed, and I couldn\u2019t play like I used to, with a lot of confidence. That really brought me down, and I couldn\u2019t play at that level. There are still some remnants from that [in my game].\u201d vsm could have easily soured on CS:GO after his career hit such a major roadblock, but he kept on playing, trying to make the most of the opportunities to compete abroad that came his way. 2019 was his breakout year as he averaged an impressive 1.19 HLTV rating and 1.26 Impact on LAN, attending both ESL Pro League Americas seasons and the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals. He also picked up his first international trophy by winning the OMEN Atlantic Challenge in Lisbon. And then, out of the blue, Valve relaxed the Major circuit\u2019s VAC ban rules in 2021. The developer set a five-year cap on the ineligibility of players with VAC-banned accounts, giving vsm, Jamppi, and others the chance to finally attend Majors, which are regarded as the absolute pinnacle of the game. \u201c#vsmisfree,\u201d he quickly tweeted. For many years, the Brazilian CS:GO community had used the hashtag \u2018#freevsm\u2019 to rally support for the player and push Valve to look into his case. vsm\u2019s first three qualification attempts ended in failure. To make matters worse, his team could not even reach the RMR leading to the IEM Rio Major, the biggest event in the history of Brazilian Counter-Strike and the one Fluxo had in their sights when they entered CS:GO in August 2022. But his patience was finally rewarded last month when the team finished fifth in the Americas RMR to punch their ticket to the BLAST Paris Major. As the qualification series against Paquet\u00e1 came to a close, vsm struggled to hold back the tears. \u201cI am so happy because this is something I always wanted in my life, and I have finally done it!\u201d he says of qualifying for the Major. \u201cThis is an important moment because this is the last CS:GO Major. \u201cI am really happy to have my sticker because it means my name will be in the game that I love. CS is really important to me.\u201d Major preparations The qualification for the BLAST Paris Major is a landmark moment for Fluxo, a Brazilian organization that has amassed a legion of followers since its founding in January 2021. Initially, Fluxo competed only in Free Fire, the game in which co-founder and CEO Bruno \u2018Nobru\u2019 Goes made his name, but over the last 12 months, the organization has expanded into other titles. In August 2022, Fluxo spent nearly half a million dollars on player transfers when assembling its CS:GO team. Before the end of the year, it entered CBLOL, Brazil\u2019s franchise League of Legends competition, by acquiring Rensga eSports\u2019 slot for an undisclosed fee. \u201cEver since this project was accepted by Fluxo, we agreed with the organization that we had to reach the Major,\u201d vsm says. \u201cGetting Fluxo\u2019s brand on the international scene is very important for the growth of the organization.\u201d The team spent two weeks bootcamping in Germany, practicing over nine hours a day, with no off days, according to vsm. During this time, they worked on getting everyone in top shape for the Major and cutting out the mistakes that proved costly in the two domestic tournaments that came after the RMR. Because of those disappointing showings, Fluxo is regarded as massive underdogs for the Major, with many pro players, analysts, and community members predicting them to go 0-3 in the Challengers Stage. vsm says that the team\u2019s main goal was to qualify for the Major; now, the players are focused on giving a good account of themselves. But even if Fluxo\u2019s Major campaign comes to an early end, vsm will still have reasons to smile. For someone who spent so many years chasing this goal, just making it to the Major in Paris feels like a win. \u201cI never thought about quitting because I learned that, in order to win in life, you need to lose,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was always on my mind, and I just kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How vsm persevered through a ban and finally reached a CSGO Major FluxoFor several years, Vinicius \u2018vsm\u2019 Moreira was unable to play at CSGO Majors because of an old VAC ban. At the BLAST Paris Major, his dream finally comes true. Of the 25 Major rookies competing at the BLAST Paris Major, no one is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}