Bryan "Jimbo" Sabman is known as a controversial figure in the COD pro scene. And he's just been banned mid-match during Challengers champs!
The Call of Duty League Champs 2023 took place in Vegas over the weekend, and at the same time the Challengers Champs was being held at the same venue. The CDL event was fantastic, and NYSL took home the rings. But while NYSLs entry sub KiSMET's had a great weekend, his former rival Jimbo had a terrible weekend in the Challengers pit.
Jimbo's account was banned for cheating mid-match! Folks like Censor have been subtly accusing Jimbo of this behavior for a while, and now it seems they've been proven right.
Jimbo Banned For Cheating
The whole situation unfolded during the match between Jimbos team Orbit and OMiT, in which Jimbo allegedly got banned for cheating mid-match. This was reported by well known CoD Challenger news source "The Rotation" on Twitter.
Jimbo's account has been banned for hacking mid LAN match pic.twitter.com/UV1BVSI1nw
— The Rotation (@_TheRotation) June 16, 2023
There was a possibility that it was a false ban, so the ref decided not to stop the match-up, but to replay the game and full reset the map. Jimbo was allowed to use one of his other BattleNet accounts and continued to play.
OMiT won the replay as well, however. Now, Orbit could have moved on to the loser's bracket, but the team decided to forfeit the tournament and head home instead. Well, Jimbo literally fled the venue according to his team.
Orbit have been forfeited from Challengers ChampsJimbo, GRVTY, Gio and Classic are out.
— The Rotation (@_TheRotation) June 16, 2023
The vast majority believe that Jimbo is the kind of guy to use cheats. And, of course, Boston Breach Academy player Doug "Censor" Martin, just had to get out a tweet:
"Jimbo is officially a hacking cheater. I knew he was hacking this entire time and out of respect for GRVTY I kept it quiet. Didn’t have proof, either. What a loser man, I expect Boston Academy to have a challenger cup championship @CODLeague because he hacked on us in the finals."
But Jimbo's teammates were unsure about what happened, as Orbit player Thomas "GRVTY" tweeted:
"What sucks is I’ll have no idea if it’s a rightful ban or not. Now off this shit, all our reputations are completely tarnished."
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Jimbos Controversial History
As stated before, Jimbo is seen as a controversial character in the scene and has a history of scandals behind him. Once, for example, he threatened COD pro Matthew "KiSMET" Tinsley to shoot him in the head during a Challengers match in 2021, and was banned for 3 months in the aftermath.
For now, everybody is still waiting for an official statement by Activision. Should the allegations come true, the consequences will be an indefinite ban for Jimbo from all official Call of Duty tournaments and leagues. That would most likely mark the end of his professional esports career.