ESEA Gives effys and cardiac from Really Old People match-fixing bans

Really Old People is a North American Counter Strike team that has been on the come up during this season’s Mountain Dew League. It’s been revealed this week that two members from the team were betting on matches within Mountain Dew League and their behavior in matches was suspicious. As a result, both effys and cardiac received 1 year bans from playing any ESEA events.

A Match Fix, But Not One to Make History

The recent news isn’t nearly as world shattering as the iBuyPower back in 2014. However, it does lay an important picture of what risks there are with so many teams being put up on betting platforms. On the flip side, it also shows that there is a lot of structure in the way large organizations investigate and handle match fixing claims.

It started with ESEA clocking onto some suspicious behavior from Really Old People earlier in the event. Later, GG.BET approached ESEA and gave them evidence that showcased bets that were made by effys and cardiac. According to GG.BET, these bets were irregular and immediately caught GG.BET’s attention.

So how did it all begin?

ESEA further found that both effys and cardiac, alongside Strong Legs, a community caster, had violated an important gambling term set out by Valve after the iBuyPower incident. The terms from Valve states that all event production staff, as well as the team members for players participating in an event, should never place any bet on a match.

The punishment isn’t nearly as bad as you would have first thought. For now, ESEA has given the two players and one caster a single year ban. ESEA will be in touch with the Esports Integrity Coalition to discuss whether the ban should be extended.

Interestingly, neither effys or Cardiac have spoken out about the incident since. If they were innocent, I’m sure they’d be jumping on Twitter to scream and shout. Strong Legs, the community caster, did write a statement on Twitter, however.

According to Strong Legs, he had been placing bets on the entire tournament, alongside many other matches in other tournaments. He was uncertain why he was handed a ban to begin with, but it was later revealed to him that one of his bets was placed at the same time that the Really Old People players bet on themselves. From his argument, it was just a coincidence that he got caught up in all the drama. We can understand his point, and as a caster, Strong Legs had no role in match fixing whatsoever.

However, Strong Legs still broke the terms that Valve had set out and many tournament organizers had adopted.

Strong Legs was unaware of the rule, but that does not mean he can avoid punishment.

What are your thoughts on all of this?

In my opinion, the community as a whole should have learned through the iBuyPower incident that match fixing is absolutely not allowed.

Punishments at this point should be strict and severe to discourage players from match fixing and ruining esports integrity.

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