The former CS:GO Cloud9 and compLexity member Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert revealed his experience with offers to match-fixing during his time competing on stage. He has recently retired from professional CS:GO.
In a talk with journalist Richard Lewis, n0thing recalled his professional career as a CS:GO player and how CS:GO had evolved into one of the highest level competitive eSports. Along the way, he mentioned the controversial iBUYPOWER match-fix scandal and his own times when he was invited to join hands with match-fixers.
In the past, he and his teammates at some point were approached with messages to take part in the illegal act of throwing certain matches. He was surprised to actually get such invitations like that and instantly discarded them. “I think it wasn’t a joke,” said n0thing. An offer to take part in such a heinous act could not be some light-hearted prank.
Match-fixing in eSports most often occurs where a third party wants to ensure one specific team lose in a match for gambling purpose. Money is offered to players in that same team to get them intentionally throw the match.
Match-fixing creates an ugly affair where players go against the sportsmanship. What we expect most from watching competitive eSports or sports is their competitiveness. We would cheer for players and the team when they strive to score the goal against the opponent. What is the point of watching playing intentionally losing the game? It would totally ruin everyone’s experience and eventually spoil the whole game’s development.
In the history of eSports and CS:GO, one of the most controversial scandal regarding match-fixing was the iBUYPOWER CS:GO team against NetcodeGuides.com. It happened in 2014 in an online match where iBUYPOWER was the heavy favorite to win the match. Yet people described what really occurred there as “unsightly, unsportsmanlike” or even “disguisting”. The heavy overdog iBUYPOWER threw the match away, losing 4-16.
What happened after the scandal was brought to light was the official decisions from Valve to ban lifetime all players who took part in the scandal. They were prohibited to attend major Valve-hosted tournament. The players can continue their career but will never make it to the biggest stage of CS:GO.
n0thing stated that he never accepted any offers and didn’t even consider taking part in one. Those offers were about not important matches, where losing or winning didn't even matter. Though remaining cleared of match-fixing, he knows that they may well be genuine as in some minor events, throwing one match can even earn you more money than the whole tournament.
n0thing and his teammates never accepted those offers, we can not tell the same about other players who may have committed the misdeeds.