Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or CSGO has been at the top of the 5v5 Competitive Esports gaming scene for nearly a decade. The professional scene of CSGO has recently been on the brink of some controversies and ‘Professional Match-fixing’ is one of them.
CSGO is one of the biggest games in the Esports scene and many players worldwide have found, made, and developed their career through it. But just like normal Sports, match-fixing scandals found their way into Esports.
According to the latest reports by ESIC, they are unwrapping one of the biggest betting syndicates in North America, regarding the ESEA MDL.
What is ESIC?
The ESIC stands for The Esports Integrity Commission, and it was established back in 2016 to facilitate competitive integrity in Esports. They have investigated the vital cases, including the most recent CSGO’s ‘Coaching Bug’ scandal that had shaken the Pro scene forever.
What is the current Match-fixing issue?
According to the reports from September 2020, the ESIC was looking after 15 ongoing investigations that had to disrupt the integrity of CSGO’s Pro Esports scene. A month after the announcement, a number of Pro players were accused and are currently a part of the ongoing investigation.
The entire ‘match-fixing’ scandal revolves around last year’s ESEA MDL Season 35. The evidence revealed that this was way more than a generic betting act in the Esports scene. This undertook ‘Bribing’ a team and manipulating the outcome of a game before the match even took place, causing a greater scope in profit advancements.
An important audio clip was revealed by Dust.us, that strongly confirms the above allegations as claimed by official ESIC reports. This audio clip involves a conversation between Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano, Carson “nosraC” O’Reilly, and Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak, who were participating players in CSGO’s ESEA MDL Season 35.
The clips verify the trio’s pre-planned loss against Russian Canadians and their discussion on how to make the fixed match seem legitimate to the eyes of the overlookers.
The match, however, was forfeited but the conversation made clear that there was more to this match-fixing scandal. The ongoing conversation revealed that Sebastian “retchy” was convincing Kevin “4pack” to throw another game, which involved some other allegedly associated names in the scene.
The names of David “JoLZ” Jolin and Alex “vek” Voynov were associated with the fixing scheme. However, the other two members of the team Russian Canadian, Ian “battery” Yates and Dylan “Saturn” Finch were not involved and the whole plan was kept hidden to them, to make the pre-planned game seem a bit legitimate.
It was also involved that retchy would share the profit generated from the Bitcoin-betting site with the opponent’s team’s IGL Vek.
The Current situation and FBI’s Involvement
The five involved players have been suspended for their misconduct by ESEA. Vek however, on a statement of his own, turned down all the alleged allegations on him and tried to part apart from the situation.
According to Ian Smith, commissioner of ESIC, the whole investigation on North America’s match-fixing and illegitimate betting racket has now involved the likes of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). FBI is an American agency that deals with the security and domestic intelligence service of the United States of America and are its principal federal law enforcement agency.
Under America’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the FBI tackles gambling and corruption cases in sports. Their involvement in CSGO’s match-fixing scandal only verifies the size of the crime.
CSGO’s Esports is a multi-million dollar industry and the corruption thus justifies the involvement of such a big organization.
All following reports, involvements, ongoing processes will come out to the public at a much slower pace due to the involvement of the FBI. Even Riot Games are at their high seats as many of the ex CSGO players have found a new career in Valorant, an esports game that shares a major resemblance to the former. They have made serious implementations to stop such scandals in their game’s Professional scene, worldwide.
If you are interested in Valorant then you can also check out VALORANT Episode 2 Act 2 – Everything You Need To Know.
Riot Games have initiated their private investigation that will specially include the Pro-players that had a former professional CSGO background. The recent Ryan “Shanks” Ngo case just concretes the fact for Riot Game’s worries regarding any similar problems in Valorant.
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