Challengers Team Orbit Disqualified from CoD Champs after Jimbo is Banned for Hacking
Following much speculation, Esports Illustrated can confirm that Team Orbit (Jimbo, GRVTY, Classic & Gio) have been disqualified from COD Challengers Champs.
The Call of Duty League amateur circuit, COD Challengers, has been thriving in the 2023 season. With more teams than ever competing in the Challengers Championship, fans have come to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas in massive numbers to see the best upcoming talent perform. However, the first day of the tournament has been overshadowed by a wild event, a player being banned mid-game for hacking, and the team then being disqualified from the tournament.
OMiT took on Orbit in a match that was streamed on Twitch to kick off day one of the 2023 Challengers Championship. However, Orbit player Jimbo was unexpectedly banned in the middle of the game. OMiT were leading the series 2-1, and had over a 100 point lead when the situation happened.
Jimbo was allowed to continue competing in the series, with Activison putting him on a new account for the remainder of the game. OMiT went on to take the map replay and therefore the series. While Jimbo stated that Activison would unban his account, and there was ‘no reason’ for the ban, this was ultimately not true.
A COD Challengers Admin at the event stated that the reason for the ban was ‘hacking’, and shortly after the conclusion of the series, an Activision representative told Esports Illustrated that the Orbit team was disqualified from the event. Jimbo has played in the Call of Duty League before, having a five month stint on Paris Legion during the 2022 Vanguard season. However, his ban has seen him and his teammates forfeited from the event, not only tainting his own reputation, but the reputation of his teammates GRVTY, Classic and Gio also.
This leaves a number of questions around the COD Challengers 2023 season, with Boston Breach Academy’s Censor stating that they should now have a Challengers Cup win after losing to Jimbo earlier in the season.
Activison and the Call of Duty League are yet to release a statement on the situation. However, the official Orbit Twitter released a statement following the DQ:
