A German Counter-Strike team is embroiled in a new match fixing scandal.
An exhibition played yesterday featuring German side myRevenge drew intense suspicion from fans, and an investigation was quickly launched by esports betting website CSGO Lounge.
Questions arose after myRevenge, who were heavily favored to beat Hungarian side Volgare, lost in a clean sweep.
The odds on CSGO Lounge had been stacked significantly in myRevenge’s favor prior to the match being played, meaning that any bets made on Volgare could potentially have huge returns.
Following calls for an investigation, CSGO Lounge officials took a closer look into the matter. Today, the group announced their findings on the official CSGO Lounge subreddit. And they looked very bad for myRevenge.
The most obvious piece of evidence showed a myRevenge player making a maximum bet against his own team. In addition to that, two other members of myRevenge had a significant majority of their connected friends bet against them through a mixture of normal bets and bets made on alternate Steam accounts, a common practice for those who wish to make bets on such sites without giving away their identity.
Members of myRevenge also made some questionable decisions during the game. And while this is a much more subjective measure, it only lends credence to the accusations when combined with the other evidence.
CSGO Lounge have reacted by returning all weapon skins, the currency used to bet on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches, to their original owners.
It’s an unfortunate development for users who made legitimate bets on Volgare and have now lost their winnings, a situation CSGO Lounge apologized for in their announcement.
For their part, management at myRevenge took the organization’s official Facebook page. The team apologized for the incident, professed ignorance, and promised to speak to the involved players in the coming days “and find out what exactly happened and make a statement then.”
Match fixing remains a serious problem in Counter-Strike. In October, Polish team Alsen were found guilty of the offense. Previous to that, evidence surfaced suggesting some top American teams had been involved in similar practices, though no one was ever formally disciplined as a result.
Image via myRevenge/Facebook
