The odyssey of Gabriel Jesus, banned for a week on CS with a $40,000 account

Many footballers share a passion for gaming, but this, with the financial resources they have at their disposal, can often get out of hand very quickly. And this is the case for Gabriel Jesus, with the Arsenal striker finding himself with a $38,000 account suspended indefinitely. We don’t know whether due to a revision of the block or a rare and fortuitous case, however, the alarm was lifted and the Brazilian was able to express all his joy on social media.

The $40,000 Ban —

The case was extremely particular. Gabriel Jesus is a huge fan of Counter-Strike 2, to the point of having spent (according to estimates) $38,000 on in-game purchases – which, in Valve’s competitive shooter, mostly translates into weapon skins. The most exotic purchase is an M4A1-S Hot Rod, which boasts a series of stickers plastered on the barrel that distinguish it from all the other weapons in the game. The reasons that led to the ban are not clear, but some observe that it may have been the flurry of particularly expensive purchases that triggered Valve’s VAC, or Steam’s anti-cheating mechanism, perhaps worried that the tip expenses could translate into into some competitive advantage.

Gabriel Jesus desperate —

It was Gabriel Jesus himself who made the case public on January 24, sharing a heartfelt appeal on X. “Hello Counter-Strike”, he wrote, tagging the game’s official account. “My account has been unfairly VAC banned, can you help me?”. The ban was then removed on the night of January 31st, according to some in a completely random manner and by coincidence, given that other users reported an unblocking on the Steam forums right around those same times. A behaviour, in fact, which is not typical on the part of Valve, which tends not to unblock the assigned bans (which prevent access to the account and related purchases in full) and not to provide specific reasons. Then, yesterday, the celebration: “match day, goal and three points. To top it off, the Counter-Strike guys reviewed my account and the ban went away. Great day! Tomorrow is a CS day!”.

Match day, goal and three points. To top it up, the guys from @CounterStrike reviewed my account and the Ban is down. Great day! 😅

Tomorrow is CS day! 🙏🏾🤙🏾

— Gabriel Jesus (@gabrieljesus9) January 30, 2024

Community reactions —

Not everyone took it very well, however. A player on Reddit (via escorenews) points out how “for a peasant like me, for example, you get banned for no reason and have to wait three weeks when you have a 13 year old account with very expensive inventory and over 100 games”, while another adds even more clearly: “this is shit **. I’ve been unfairly banned for thirty days now, and he’s being unbanned just because he’s famous?”.