Update: Controversial Advanced player banned for account sharing

ESEA has banned ESEA Advanced and former ESL Challenger League player Andrew "VulcaN" Dominguez for a month alleging that he shared his account with another player. The one-month ban will see VulcaN miss out on the majority of ESEA Advanced Season 45, and has more importantly resulted in his team, Lycus Empire, having their 3-0 record overturned to a 0-3 record in the league.

This ban represents a major setback for the team as the core previously made it all the way to relegation last season as Tsunami. It also marks the second time in recent months VulcaN has found himself in hot water for bad behavior. The controversial 22-year-old was credibly accused by a number of friends and former teammates of borrowing skins and cash before allegedly failing to return the goods for a number of outlandish reasons.

Dust2.us investigated the original accusation and found that VulcaN allegedly owed eight players around $4,650. In light of this story, Dust2.us reached out to a number of VulcaN's alleged victims to see if VulcaN had made an effort to repay/reimburse the skins and money. Adam "Loop" Bahriz, Brett "brett" Rhein, Neil "flux" K., and Rylan "FE4R" Flynn tell Dust2.us that VulcaN has made no effort to contact them or repay his debt. The remainder did not respond by the time of publication.

In light of the ban, VulcaN made a new-deleted tweet seemingly alleging that the ban came as a result of playing under a new ip. Dust2.us reached out to VulcaN for further context and comment but he did not respond by the time of publication.

This new controversy involving VulcaN puts Lycus Empire in an awkward spot as the organization signed the team less than two weeks ago on April 7th. In response to the ban, Jacob "disciple" Powell, COO of Lycus Empire, offered Dust2.us the following statement:

Lycus Empire was made aware of the ban shortly after our match last night versus Orion. From the get-go, we were in talks with our roster and ESEA on the matter. We have been in close contact with ESEA admins to get to the bottom of the situation. We will back VulcaN until we have proof not too. We at Lycus care deeply about all of our rosters, creators and community. Until we have further proof of the situation - VulcaN and the rest of the roster will be with Lycus.

While the organization states they plan on backing VulcaN until they find proof not too, they will likely find that hard as he cannot play for the team due to well, being banned. In another twist, when VulcaN's history of allegedly defrauding his teammates was brought up, Powell commented that Lycus Empire was not aware of the allegations, however the news was "interesting."

Lycus Empire's roster consists of, for the moment:

• Andrew "VulcaN" Dominguez

• Illya "supa" Filanchuk

• Maxwell "xam" Power

• Ethan "Ethex" Eihardt

• Kevin "Magic" Simpson

While the situation has yet to fully play out, it appears this is another case of an organization doing little to no checking into the history of who they're going to sponsor and let wear their colors. The remainder of the lineup will have a difficult road back to playoffs, with their next match set to be against Mad Kings on April 19th.

Update: Following the immediate publication of this article, Lycus Empire COO, Jacob "disciple" Powell, reached out to Dust2.us to announce VulcaN has been released by the organization.