Posted by The world of online gaming is a favorite escape for a lot of people. With the right equipment and Spectrum One that most people find affordable, online gaming is an accessible and relatively affordable pastime. However, beyond the world of casual gaming lies the world of professional e-sports. And that is a world of high-stake international tournaments, competitive professional gaming, sponsorships, million-dollar prize pools, and visibility. Pro gamers enjoy a demigod status in gaming circles, similar to pro baseball or NFL athletes. And just like the world of professional sports, professional e-sports has a darker side to it as well.
Here are 5 of the most infamous scandals in e-sports and how tournaments and platforms have taken countermeasures to make sure they never happen again.
CS : GO – Matchfixing in a Professional Tournament
Modern e-sports pros earn by the truckload from professional tournaments, team salaries, endorsements, sponsorships, streaming incomes, and more. This is part of the reason so many people compete professionally and try to reach the very top. But while e-sports are huge today, in the early days, most pro gamers weren’t exactly minting millions. CS:GO had a similar community where prize pools and player salaries were microscopic compared to today.
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iBUYPOWER was one of the top teams in the CS : GO scene at that point. Going into 2014-15 they were arguably the strongest professional team competing in CS : GO tournaments. In fact, it was a favorite for most pro tournaments during that time, thanks to its extremely talented lineup. However, once the players became greedy, their careers came to a crashing halt. iBUYPOWER was revealed to be the architects behind what became the infamous significant match-fixing scandal in gaming history. In 2015 an investigation revealed that several of the team members were in collusion with the founders of a betting site called netcodeguides.com. Players were found to have placed bets against their own team in 2 matches that they went on to lose.
Countermeasure: Once the investigation revealed that 6 of the 7 members had profited from bets placed against their own losses, Valve retaliate swiftly. All 6 members received a lifetime competitive ban. The remaining player was the only one not to have placed a bet and went on to join another pro team. While other platforms have lifted the ban for some of the players, Valve continues to exclude them from any major CS:GO events it sponsors.
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League of Legends: From Worlds Cup Favorites to Bottom of the League
It’s usually the biggest teams that fall the hardest, and it was no different for Team Griffin. Once considered one of the best League of Legends teams from Korea, the team imploded spectacularly in 2020. But just a year prior to that, Griffin was an impeccable team, dominating most of the competition. In the Worlds 2019, the Korean powerhouse was a serious contender to take home the top spot. However, barely a week before their first Worlds appearance, Griffin suddenly fired coach cvMax. This was primarily shocking because cvMax was widely recognized as a key driving force behind Team Griffin’s success.
Griffin went on to finish in the quarterfinals, further prompting speculations that outcomes would have been different with cvMax around. And suddenly, things turned ugly. Players accused the head coach of being physically and verbally abusive. In retaliation, cvMax alleged he had been fired for incompetence by the team director. He pointed out the fact that the team had offered stellar performances in tournaments during his tenure as proof of his competence. He also alleged being pressured into an unfair contract.
Countermeasures: Riot Games and the Korea E-Sports Association conducted individual investigations and seemed to have found some truth to both parties’ allegations. Both the coach and director were handed an indefinite suspension. In addition, Griffin was fined about 100 million KRV. And to add insult to injury, the team finished bottom of the table in a tournament they entered as favorites.
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Starcraft 2: The Meteoric Rise and Fall of a True Prodigy
Imagine realizing the dream every gamer has at some point: rising to the very top of the e-sports scene and being recognized as the absolute best. Now imagine being banned for life from the game that gave you fame and success. That is exactly what happened to Korean Starcraft 2 prodigy Lee Seung-hyun, better known as “Life”. Life first competed in the professional scene aged 14, and before his 16th birthday had defeated players that many considered the best of all time. This would sadly turn into Spectrum one of the most tragic stories on the Starcraft 2 circuit in 2016.
A fast-paced aggressive style with the Zerg species made Life a legend, and many analysts genuinely considered him a true prodigy. In 2016, however, the star of the pro scene fell hard, brought down by a match-fixing scandal.
Life was arrested and prosecuted for match-fixing by Korean authorities, eventually serving an 18-month jail term. And that was just the legal repercussion. In the world of e-sports, Life received a lifetime ban and remains unable to compete in any e-sports event affiliated with the Korea e-Sports Association. Greed ultimately destroyed perhaps the most talented player of his time.