Though Parabellum’s R6 squad has qualified for the Six Invitational, Luiz has been banned, and their coach has left the org, and “retired from esports”. It’s really unfortunate that both of these things happened to the first-ever Canadian squad to qualify for the Six Invitational. These two things aren’t even the only tragedies. Parabellum’s roster was formerly under Altiora. They qualified for the Six Invitational as Altiora, but the roster was let go, and are now under Parabellum Esports. The two controversies we’re about to talk about are not connected, but both are tragic.

Luiz joined Parabellum in March but has already been banned in R6 for a full year. It seemed like he was just an incredibly skilled player – at first, anyway. Some clips hit the internet this week where Luiz was being accused of cheating. Luiz denied this, saying “I am not cheating I just got extremely lucky please stop posting about it ty,” but it wasn’t dropped.

Parabellum’s Luiz is not the first T1 R6 player to be banned for cheats, but he is the first since 2017 (Shaiiko). It was such a wholesome underdog story for Parabellum, but this and the next story really spoil an otherwise interesting tale. Hopefully, Ubisoft will allow the team to have a ringer to take part, so Parabellum are still able to compete. We’ll just have to see. But Okward1HP’s story is a darker one.

Okward1hp (Matthew Smedley) joined in December, but was suspended in April 13th, but not because of cheating or anything like that. Instead, it was due to “serious allegations”, which have now been revealed. This came at the same time that allegations of the Parabellum coach was involved in an inappropriate conversation with a minor.

This minor, Allessa came forward on April 14th with a Twitlonger that goes into the allegations in detail. She denies that Okward left because of rumors of “being investigated over an ADHD joke he made to Allessa”, and instead tells her story. You can read the full Twitlonger here. Allessa had this to say:

“About one month ago, Matt had followed me on Twitter. He began to like/comment on a lot of my tweets until one night he had DMed me and initiated a conversation. He asked if we could play Valorant, then asked for my discord. I gave him my discord and we started a call. During the call that night, he had said several compliments towards me. Ex. I had called a skin I was using in Valorant “pretty”, and he would reply with “No, you’re pretty.”, etc. And to clarify, he was aware of my age even before he had first DMed, I was 16 at the time and he was 19.”

The Twitlonger may be uncomfortable reading for many, as it highlights Okward1HP gaslighting and harassing Allessa in a variety of ways. A series of inappropriate comments were made, and this led to the investigation against him by Parabellum. Parabellum made a statement after Okward1HP “retired” from Esports, making it known that several members of the R6 community had stories of Okward, leading to the investigation.

The investigation continued, despite Okward’s decision to retire, but also state they are unable to share the details of their investigation. These moments happened quite close to one another, and though unconnected, it’s a shame to see at all. There is a possibility of Luiz making a comeback, but Okward1HP’s allegations are far darker. Parabellum Esports as of this time is looking for a replacement for their coach for the Challenger League series, and the Six Invitational.