ESL warns Monte's coach; asks to "show no emotion"

Monte's coach kakafu has been one of the more expressive ones in Stage 2 of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major. Monte started Stage 2 with a win against BIG before going down to G2 and then taking down Legacy to set up their qualification match in the 2-1 pool against BetBoom. Throughout Stage 2, Monte's coach has been lively, standing behind his players and celebrating every round win.

However, ESL has handed a "final warning" to kakafu and the coach revealed on X that ESL has instructed him to "show no emtion" while standing behind the players. "Valve is forcing TOs to be strict with this rule at the Majors", claims kakafu on X. Monte's coach also backs up ESL and Valve's intent, stating that players and coaches can potentially communicate through gestures (celebrating by raising arms, etc) in one of the replies.

Hard to say. They don't give a clear answer to it. It's "don't make sounds" and no "big" hand gestures. I keep asking about different things but the answer is "you better not do it", so I gave up asking.
Monte's coach on specifics about the regulation

The official IEM Cologne 2026 rulebook prohibits coaches from communicating with players in any possible outside of tactical timeouts and half-time breaks. ESL specifically mentions "shouting or non-verbal communication (e.g. touching)" as a part of this clause. When asked about the consequence of breaking ESL's "final warning", Monte's coach said that he would be "excluded from the tournament".

kakafu concludes his post by expressing his intent to get behind VALORANT's system for coaches where they are stationed in a separate room with PCs instead of standing right behind the players on stage if the regulations for coaches at LANs become stricter in Counter-Strike.