WePlay! Esports had to delve into yet another set of match-fixing allegations, with the organizer investigating two teams and ultimately banning one from future events.
During the Omega League Asia Divine division competition, a series between Execration and Cignal Ultra and another featuring the LING ER and DeMonster stacks, had concerns raised about their legitimacy.
In the case of the LING ER match, betting companies notified WePlay! the team’s second game attracted suspicious activity. Evidence the company compiled internally pointed to LING ER losing intentionally, and thus, the entire team has been disqualified from the Omega League.
“We’ve looked at the match between LING ER and DeMonster ourselves and asked for opinions and any data from analysts, players, and representatives of betting companies,” lead esports manager at WePlay! Vitaliy “Nexius” Bozhko said. “The evidence we have and the subjective opinions we heard are consistent that LING ER lost the second game of the series intentionally.”
Along with the disqualification, all five players—Yeo ”TigerCat” Chun Kiat, Wang “大猪” Jie, Law “眼高手低” Chee Hoong, Liew “Bee” Wei Hang, and Hao “76561198125784995″ Zeng—have received year-long bans from any event organized by WePlay! Esports and Epic Esports Events for one year, ending on Aug. 13, 2021.
All matches involving LING ER have been removed from the schedule and any previous game results have been nullified.
The Aug. 9 match between XctN and Cignal led to WePlay! talking with betting companies that ran competitions for the series. Those bookmakers noted that the match did “spawn some unusual activity,” but nothing that directly pointed to either team throwing games.
Published: Aug 13, 2020 08:19 pm