Valve bans seven in aftermath of Counter-Strike match fixing accusations

Valve is banning seven professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players from all future events it sponsors, following match-fixing allegations first reported last week.

Valve made the declaration yesterday following its own investigation of "the historical activity of relevant accounts." The Daily Dot last week reported that a match in August, between the top American team iBUYPOWER and a lesser opponent NetcodeGuides.com, was fixed and paid off "multiple, unusual bets," placed by a player with "strong connections to the players on both sides."

Valve said its investigation found that "a substantial number of high-valued items won from that match," were transferred to members of both teams by the person who placed the bets, Duc "cud" Pham. The Daily Dot reported it had text messages from one of the banned players, Derek "dboorn" Boorn, saying he would be getting "about $7,000 worth of skins" in his Steam account on the day of the match in question.

Valve banned Pham, Boorn and five others, with a general warning against pros ever betting on any Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match, or associating with those who do.

Professional players, their managers, and teams' organization staff, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets.

Valve went on to warn that "it's important to consider the substantial impact an individual professional Counter-Strike player has on the health and stability of their sport."

For more, The Daily Dot has a comprehensive accounting of the alleged match fixing, and the participants' alleged roles in it, including screenshots of message traffic discussing a fix.