Valve Swings the Banhammer Down on CS:GO Match-Fixers

The individuals implicated in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match-fixing scandal have been banned for life.

You may have heard about the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match-fixing scandal that rocked the game’s competitive scene last year. Valve has now processed all the evidence and information, and passed its judgement down on all of those who were implicated in tarnishing the game’s name. The punishment? A life-time ban from any and all Valve-sponsored eSports events. Ouch.

“We can confirm, by investigating the historical activity of relevant accounts, that a substantial number of high valued items won from [the alleged match-fixing] match by Duc ‘cud’ Pham were transferred (via Derek ‘dboorn’ Boorn) to iBUYPOWER players and NetCodeGuides founder, Casey Foster,” stated Valve in an official statement.

“All together, the information we have collected and received makes us uncomfortable continuing any involvement with these individuals,” it continued. “Therefore we will be directing our CS:GO event partners to not allow any of [these] individuals’ participation in any capacity in Valve-sponsored events.”

For the record, the individuals Valve is referring to are:

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

Furthermore, Valve clarified to its player base that “Professional players, their managers, and teams’ organization staff, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches,” something that should really have been a given by this stage.

CS:GO has really exploded as an eSport over these past few years, and just like League of Legends before it, you gotta take the good with the bad.

Source: Valve