Shazam

iBUYPOWER and NetCodeGuides met in an August 21, 2014 match during the CEVO Professional Season 5.[3] iBUYPOWER (iBP) was heavily favored to win the match, but instead lost resoundingly, 16 to 4. What attracted attention at the time of the match was the strange strategies by iBuyPower: they attempted knife kills at odd times and seemed displeased that their tactics failed. Contemporary analyses blamed travel issues—the team had just played at ESL One Cologne 2014—and unfamiliarity with the map.[1]

The next day, Dot Esports received a tip consisting of screenshots of a conversation with Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan before the game; in the messages, Khan said the match had been fixed and iBP was to lose.[4] While Khan declared his own innocence, he ultimately refused to reveal who was behind the match fixing. In January 2015, the case resurfaced when a former girlfriend of an iBUYPOWER player posted a string of incriminating text messages between herself and Derek "dboorn" Boorn. In the texts, Boorn, who by this time had moved on to a new team, confirmed that the match had been fixed and that he had bet for the team using alternate accounts on the popular CS:GO Lounge site. The messages also revealed the identity of the individual who placed the bets on the team: Duc "cud" Pham, a player, skins bettor and trader. The CS:GO Lounge site, suspecting something was amiss, found that Pham had used nine accounts to place wagers that yielded a return of $1,193.14 each, for a total of $10,738.26 in gains from match fixing; it did not go public until Dot Esports provided additional evidence that linked the teams to the scandal.[4] The revelations came at a time when iBUYPOWER's former players were shopping for a new sponsor, with Evil Geniuses being named as among the potential candidates.[4]

Potential non-monetary motivations for match fixing included conflicts of interest between iBP players and NCG, as well as the fact that the win placed NCG one game away from qualification for the LAN finals with just two matches to play.[4] iBP went on to win the LAN Finals, which included a victory over NetCodeGuides.[5]