On 20 November 2014, a VAC ban appeared on Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian’s Steam account. Titan, his team, was days from playing DreamHack Winter as one of the scene’s strongest rosters. Within a day Titan was out of the tournament — not for anything the team had done, and by KQLY’s own account not for anything he had done as a member of it.
1. What happened, in order
| Step | What happened | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| End of August 2014 | KQLY runs a cheat for seven days, by his own account | Before he joined Titan |
| September 2014 | He joins Titan’s roster | The cheating had already stopped, on his account of it |
| 20 November 2014 | A VAC ban appears on his Steam account | The ban attaches to the account, not to a date range |
| 21 November 2014 | Titan and Epsilon are disqualified from DreamHack Winter 2014 | Whole rosters removed |
| 21 November 2014 | KQLY states publicly that the ban was “justified” | He does not dispute the ban itself |
2. The fault line is the timing, and no rule looks at it
The surface story is simple and undisputed: a player cheated, was caught, was banned. KQLY said so himself — “As you saw yesterday, I was banned by VAC and unfortunately it was justified.”
What makes it a story about rules is what the ban did to people other than him. He described the window precisely: “At the end of August, I was contacted by a supex0 progammer… He gave me access to the program for seven days.” And: “I did not use it after that. I was going to join Titan and I did not need to take unnecessary risks.”
If that account holds, Titan lost a Major for a week of conduct that happened before the team relationship existed. The rule that removed them has no clause for that distinction.
3. What Titan argued, and where it went
Titan did not challenge the ban’s validity. They challenged how it was handled: “Much to our surprise — instead of reaching out to us directly, once an initial decision had been made — Valve instead opted for a public press release.” And on what followed: “After an initial email exchange, however, all communications from Valve’s side ceased.”
They called the exclusion “an egregious misuse of power,” writing that it was “an inexplicable ruling to exclude the team based off of the actions of one.” We found no public reply, no hearing, and no revision of the ruling.
4. What it cost
Titan and Epsilon both lost their places at DreamHack Winter 2014, a Valve Major. Titan’s roster never played the event it had qualified for, and KQLY was released.
This is the shape Ian Woosnam ran into on a golf course: the rule about club count does not ask who packed the bag, and the rule here does not ask when the cheating stopped. In both, the penalty lands on whoever is in frame when the violation surfaces. The difference is that Woosnam’s caddie erred during the round; KQLY’s week was over before the team existed for him. Set it against forsaken’s case four years later, where the cheat was running on the machine during the match, and the distance between the two is the whole point.
5. What is confirmed and what is not
Confirmed — the 20 November 2014 ban, KQLY’s own statement that it was justified, his account of a seven-day window in late August, the disqualification of both Titan and Epsilon, and Titan’s public statement.
Not confirmed:
- Whether the seven-day account is complete. A former Epsilon player publicly disputed it, saying he was certain the use ran far longer. We found no technical record settling it, and we are not choosing between the two claims.
- The prize pool and the replacement team. Widely reported, but the contemporaneous report we tried to open returned only a signup wall, so those figures are not stated here as confirmed.
- Any rule change. We found none attributable to Titan’s complaint.
In one line
He cheated for a week before the team existed for him — and the team lost a Major for a ban that arrived three months later.
Sources
All opened and read on 31 August 2026.
- HLTV on the ban — the 20 November 2014 date, and that five other players were caught using the same cheat by the same developer.
- HLTV on Titan’s removal and statement — Titan’s full statement, including the press-release and ceased-communications lines and the “egregious misuse of power” characterisation; confirms Epsilon’s parallel disqualification.
- HLTV on KQLY’s own statement — the “justified” quote and his description of the seven-day window before joining Titan.
PC Gamer’s contemporaneous report could not be opened — the page returned a membership signup with no article text — so nothing from it is used here.
