The Team Falcons YouTube channel was randomly banned, leaving fans shocked, though it may have been due to a fake ad that features what people believe to be an AI generation of one of their pro players advertising a free Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) skins giveaway.
For some weeks, an advert has been appearing on YouTube for some users, showing Team Falcons’ Counter-Strike 2 star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač advertising an opportunity for users to earn free rare skins in CS2. Viewers very quickly noticed that it looked fake or AI generated, with slightly unnatural mouth movements and what was very clearly not a real offering.
NiKo himself responded to the problem, urging fans not to engage with the “scam” ad and that the team is working on resolving the problem.
Hey guys, both me and @FalconsEsport are aware about the scam ad that is going on on youtube, please do not engage with it, don’t enter into any giveaways or try to link your accounts. We will do our best to resolve it as soon as possible. Take care.
— Nikola Kovač (@NiKoCS_) June 5, 2025
Despite an orchestrated effort across social media to report the ad in an attempt to stop it appearing, it has persisted across various channels, not being taken down by YouTube staff.
As the problem picked up steam, and more reports came in, YouTube took different action, instead banning the FalconsEsport YouTube channel.
It’s unclear at the time of writing whether this ban is related to the ad, though many online have hypothesised that YouTube may have accidentally taken action against Falcons, believing them to be the culprits, as opposed to whoever has created and is pushing the ad.
Not only has YouTube failed to stop these scam AI ads on the Austin CS Major for over a week, but they’ve now deleted the entire actual Falcons Esports channel…
Bruh pic.twitter.com/rlBoisx6Fi
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) June 10, 2025
At the time of publication, it’s been well over 24 hours since the channel was removed, and it hasn’t gone live again yet.
