Match Fixing Scandal

The Match Fixing Scandal was an incident in which Korean pro players illegally fixed and bet on professional StarCraft matches. The players were approached by online betting websites and agreed to throw games for financial gain, either from the money the websites paid them, or by betting against themselves. These activities are strictly illegal under Korean law. The 11 players involved were banned from professional gaming, and some of them face criminal charges and the possibility of jail time. 5 years later, a similar incident was discovered in StarCraft II.

Origins

Waxangel made a post on TeamLiquid about rumours of match-fixing in Korea and some people were involved in finding out more information. This led to a blog post from TL user Rekrul about the match-fixing on April 10th, 2010 spawned the idea that some progamers had been fixing matches for personal gain. Rekrul began to talk to contacts in South Korea, allegedly paying some of them to talk. Shortly afterwards, Rekrul made a video where he talked about the situation and posted it on YouTube.

Confirmation

On May 16th, 2010, the match-fixing scandal was confirmed as true by Korean news sites. Before long, the news was being reported world-wide on international websites such as the BBC.

Reaction

The general initial reaction of the community was one of deep disappointment and even anger towards the offending progamers. The overall feeling among most of the community was a deep sense of betrayal. Many people closely affiliated with the e-sports scene such as the OGN commentators and Artosis worried that this scandal would ruin the reputation of e-sports and limit its growth.

Some people, especially Kim Carrier, have felt that an extremely harsh punishment must be exacted on the offenders, though the debate was ongoing as to whether a harsh punishment is necessary. Ultimately, players were fined, put on probation and into programs depending on the severity of their involvement.

Players implicated

•  sAviOr of CJ Entus
•  By.1st of Hite Sparkyz
•  DarkElf of Airforce ACE
•  go.go of Hite Sparkyz
•  Hwasin of STX Soul
•  Justin of Hite Sparkyz
•  Luxury of KT Rolster
•  ShinHwA of Hwaseung Oz
•  type-b of Hite Sparkyz
•  Upmagic of eSTRO
•  YellOw(ArnC) of Hite Sparkyz

As of the June 9th 2010, these 11 players were permanently banned from progaming by KeSPA.

Games fixed

• The persecutor's blogpost contains a screenshot that is taken from  Hwasin vs.  Luxury on New Tornado , referring to it as "A scene from a match that was fixed". This evidence was later confirmed-
• The accused progamer "Park" admitted match fixing in:
  • Ultimate PL game between  Luxury and  Light on 20th Sept 2009.
  • One or more of  Luxury's games in MST 19 on 25th February 2010.

Consequences

In October 2010, aside from being banned the players received the following fines and penalties:

•  go.go - 11 million won
•  Hwasin - 11 million won
•  Luxury - 12.5 million won
•  type-b - 11.5 million won
•  Upmagic - 6.5 million won
•  Justin - 3 million won, 120 hours community service, 40 hour gambling treatment program, 3 year probation (on an 18 month sentence).
•  YellOw(ArnC) - 2 million won
•  sAviOr - 120 hours community service, 2 year probation (on a 12 month sentence).
•  By.1st - 40 hour gambling treatment program, 1 year probation (on a 6 month sentence).
•  ShinHwA - 40 hour gambling treatment program, 1 year probation (on a 6 month sentence).

Additional Information

• DA Office Post about Match Fixing (contains interviews, information on how it was done, key people etc.). Translated from Korean by Milkis.
• Translated video of After Talk's discussion about the Scandal with Kingdom, Kim Carrier and Uhm Jaegyung. Translated from Korean by Milkis.
• Hwasin's apologetic interview