Bans Handed Down From Valve For Match Fixing

In the wake of the allegations and subsequent investigation formed from The Daily Dot’s Richard Lewis in regards to match fixing, Valve — creators and developers of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — has acted quickly by banning all parties involved announced in a blog post. Most of the former team iBUYPOWER as well as others involved have received bans from Valve. The ban list which includes professional players and community figures is as follows:

Duc “cud” Pham
Derek “dboorn” Boorn
Casey Foster
Sam “Dazed” Marine
Braxton “swag” Pierce
Keven “AZK” Larivière
Joshua “Steel” Nissan

Of particular note is Braxton Pierce, recently named HLTV’s 18th best CS:GO player of 2014. While there is no sole governing body in esports, let alone CS:GO, Valve did not act alone in their ban of the players from Valve-sponsored events. Competitive leagues ESEA, FACEIT and CEVO have all banned the guilty players for a minimum of one year.

Valve notes they were able to confirm the guilt after tracking the items (or skins) by looking at the historical activity of the accused accounts. Though the players apparently did not wager any money, there was thousands of dollars worth of bets in the form of skins the iBUYPOWER team wagered on the opposing underdog team NetCodeGuides.com. By throwing the match for what equated to a monetary gain, the CS:GO community cried out for justice, and it was served.

While thousands of dollars worth of in-game items may seem like a lot of money, it pales in comparison to formal bets on the games. Recently the 2015 Aspen X Games hosted a Major League Gaming CS:GO portion and popular betting site CSGO Lounge tweeted out a rather staggering figure for bets they handled on day one:

If Valve continues to step in and clean up the professional ranks of CS:GO — they and ESEA banned several professional players such as Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian in November and ESEA more recently banned Andre “flex” Francisty  live on stream — then it betters esports as a whole. With money from sponsorships, advertising revenue and the integrity of the game on the line, Valve acted quickly. It isn’t the first time a governing body has handed down bans for wagering on games, from sAviOr and StarCraft to the much more famous Pete Rose and MLB, gambling on games where you directly affect the outcome hurts the image of the sport.