https://www.dust2.us/news/39048/two-years-of-silence-esics-abandonment-of-the-na-matchfixing-investigation
" it was also confirmed publicly that ESIC would be working with Riot Games to potentially mirror the bans in VALORANT."
this could be very interesting....
2021: "35 NA players being investigated for CSGO match fixing, many of whom have gone to Valorant"
https://twitter.com/JakeSucky/status/1432706161195851787?s=20
i feel like steel or brax shouldn’t be banned it happened over 10 years ago now and have played in CS tourneys since. Others happened more recently but cmon they served their punishment 10 year ban is long enough imo why forever ban what could be a generational prospect when people can get better and they let people who have commited SA play. Imagine what Brax could have been if he never got that ban
If you read the article in full it actually details the frustration at ESIC for not coming forward with the second ban wave of NA matchfixers after 54 months. In that time alleged fixers like Marved have made a lot of money and became well known players in Valorant. I think even if ESIC do come with the second ban wave (unlikely) the damage has already largely been done.
Yeah, there has been a lot of annoyance in the community about ESIC.
A lot of this was rehashing what we already know back from 2021.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2021/08/23/esic-esports-matchfixing/
Riot Games, “Valorant’s” developer, confirmed in April it was “looking into” such allegations. “Riot Games has and continues to conduct investigations into allegations of match-fixing by players who have previously competed in other titles,” a Riot spokesperson told The Post in April.
it's all a bit strange.
Talks about FBI getting involved yet there's still a lack of announcements.
Outside of the OCE MDL betting bans there hasn't been any other cases that has been resolved.
Yeah Ian Smith has cited a lack of resources for their main reason as to not being able to make substantial progress on any bans and also that ESIC work in the present not cases yesterday, a month ago or in this instance, 2 years ago. Reading between the lines it also seems like ESIC have had problems with a low burden of proof in regards to being unable to investigate betting activity because of crypto bookmakers not wanting to cooperate and jeopardize themselves to the FBI vis-à-vis the law.
Honestly the whole report by GG today making it seem like ESIC will be doing anything is pretty stupid and clearly for impressions.
It doesn't look like ESIC will make much progress with bans anytime soon but Smith did say in a vague sense the general ESIC landscape will be different by Christmas/New Year and cases will look much closer to being concluded so lets see I guess but 2 years of silence doesn't fill me with lots of confidence that cases will be resolved in the next 6 months.
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