Valve respond to Drone’s CS:GO ban ahead of Major qualifiers

Valve has addressed an Overwatch ban placed on the CS:GO account of former Team Envy player Taylor ‘Drone’ Johnson that almost caused him to miss taking part in the StarLadder Major qualifiers.

The 21-year-old revealed on June 1 that his main Steam account had been issued with an Overwatch for griefing, meaning another player had watched his gameplay and decided that he was purposefully attempting to ruin his teammates experience by killing them or intentionally flashing them.

Drone immediately disputed these claims, stating that he had been “falsely reported and convicted by an abusable system,” and that he had been playing with personal friends at the time.

Drone receieved an Overwatch ban for griefing.

The Overwatch ban initially ruled him out of taking part in the StarLadder Major open online qualifiers, as his account was ineligible to join VAC-protected servers – which he was required to play on as part of the qualification process.

Intervention from StarLadder allowed him to compete in the qualifiers using a different account, but questions still remained as to whether he would be able to take part in the closed qualifiers with his team Peeker’s Advantage.

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Valve has now stepped in to resolve the issue, with the American tweeting his thanks to the developers for their help, saying they “got it sorted” for him, and labeling them as “legends.” In the post is a screenshot, which states his ban has been removed.

The ban was set to last until July 11, but the lifting of the suspension now means that Drone can use his main account in VAC-protected servers, allowing him to use it in the StarLadder Closed Minor Qualifier.

His team, Peeker’s Advantage, will be in action in the Americas Minor North American Closed Qualifier on June 12, where 16 teams will battle to secure a spot in the Americas Minor, and move one step closer to qualification for the StarLadder Berlin Major, which takes place in August.