Week 29: FACEIT extends bans; Liquid to headline Stockholm

FACEIT announced it will hand out longer bans for cheating, smurfing, stream sniping and repeated or targeted abuse when Season 9 launches on Aug. 5. The platform said it will apply a more contextual approach for occasional offences so penalties better match behaviour and added there is “more room for trash talk, banter, harmless backing of your country or favorite sports team, and some profanity, as long as it doesn’t progress into abuse.”

A $60,000 event in Stockholm will run July 31–Aug. 5 and will be headlined by Team Liquid. Liquid recently added Johnny “JT” Theodosiou and Georgi “Jorko” Mitev to its roster. The tournament opens with a double-elimination, best-of-three group stage and moves to a single-elimination bracket featuring the top two teams from each group.

In BLAST Bounty Season 2 action, FUT defeated SINNERS in the event’s opening matches. András “coolio” Fercsák addressed the departure of Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea, saying the team had issues with his in-game communication and that the decision to change players was not driven by a single person wanting to leave. FUT added Yasin “xfl0ud” Koç, who was described as providing more in-game communication and a voice “in the middle of the map, middle of the pack.”

Aurora, now led by Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski, opened its StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 Europe Closed Qualifier campaign on July 22 with wins over K27 and Nemesis. The team won strongly on Nuke, 13-3 and 13-2 after dropping the opponents’ map picks. Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo posted a 1.23 rating across those matches. Aurora will learn its playoff opponents ahead of the bracket stage beginning Saturday.

Luca “Luken” Nadotti announced on X that he is no longer under contract with Gaimin Gladiators and is available for new opportunities. Gaimin Gladiators benched its entire roster after the Cologne Major during a strategic review of its Counter-Strike program and now lists only Henrique “HEN1” Teles under contract. Luken wrote that changes Valve made to sticker revenue led the organization to conclude the project was no longer profitable and the team could not be sustained, and he added the organization treated the players well.

EYEBALLERS named Simon “yxngstxr” Boije as a stand-in for Max “maxster” Jansson, who was granted leave before the team’s participation in BLAST Bounty Season 2. EYEBALLERS are scheduled to face FaZe in the first round of the single-elimination bracket.

Key dates: Aurora’s qualifier wins came on July 22, the Stockholm event runs July 31–Aug. 5, and FACEIT Season 9 begins Aug. 5.