ESIC has 35 NA players under investigation for match-fixing, is working with Riot for those who switched from CS:GO to VALORANT

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Esports Integrity Commission commissioner Ian Smith gave an update today in regard to the ESIC’s investigation into match-fixing in the North American Counter-Strike scene.

During the Aug. 31 HLTV Confirmed show, Smith said there are 35 total NA players under investigation. He also said the ESIC is actively working with Riot Games on this due to the number of players who transitioned to VALORANT from Counter-Strike.

According to @ESIC_Official commissioner on @HLTVconfirmed there are 35 NA players being investigated for CSGO match fixing, many of whom have gone to Valorant

They are now also cooperating with Riot Games on this pic.twitter.com/AiGsqYQWvS

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) August 31, 2021

The ESIC’s investigation centers around match-fixing allegations in the ESEA-organized Mountain Dew League, commonly abbreviated to “MDL.”

The ESIC has started rolling out some of its bans. Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano and Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak were each banned for five years following the release of audio of them planning to fix a match by Jeffrey “Mnmzzz” Moore of dust2.us. Carson “nosraC” O’Reilly, who was also in the call, was banned as well, but only for 111 days. The ESIC concluded that nosraC did not explicitly participate in the behavior during the call, but banned him for having knowledge of corrupt behavior and not alerting the ESIC. NosraC has already served his ban and is free to participate in ESIC-governed events.

Rumors have been swirling about the upper crust of the North American VALORANT scene since the inception of the competitive scene of Riot’s FPS. Many of the NA CS players who were alleged to have participated in match-fixing while in the MDL fled to VALORANT, which at the time seemed like a fresh start. It’s becoming rapidly clear, however, that Riot will be cracking down on these players’ alleged behavior in CS to ensure the competitive integrity of VALORANT‘s burgeoning scene.

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