Professional Gamers in S’pore Suspended for Match-Fixing & Betting Against Own Team

Professional gaming isn’t scoffed at as much as it used to be.

People now recognise it to be a legitimate career where you can make a decent amount of money.

When all those hours in your room finally pay off and you’re playing on the world stage, you’d do anything to help your team win.

Unless you bet against them, of course. 

Professional Gamers in S’pore Suspended for Match-Fixing & Betting Against Own Team

Several Singapore professional gamers have been banned after they were caught match-fixing and betting against their own team.

The six offenders include five players from the Singapore team Resurgence.

Resurgence participated in the Valorant Ignition Series’ Epulze Royal Sea Cup held last year, which was part of a larger international competition for Valorant – a first-person shooter game.

In a match against the Japanese team BlackBird Ignis, Resurgence lost 2-0. Consequently, they were kicked out of the tournament and did not receive any prize money.

Then, in April of this year, allegations of match-fixing emerged online.

Leaked screenshots of chats and bets by a Resurgence player were uploaded online, showing him allegedly placing a S$3,000 bet against his own team to lose 2-0 against BlackBird Ignis.

The screenshots also allegedly showed him admitting to not playing his best during the game, and that his manager wasn’t suspicious about anything.

Due to the growing backlash, the players were suspended on 22 April.

One Player Planned the Whole Thing

According to Riot Games, which owns Valorant, it was Resurgence player Malcolm Chung who planned the whole thing.

He persuaded a fellow competitive gamer Ryan Tan, who isn’t even in Resurgence, to provide him with money for his bets.

He also told four other members of Resurgence about the scheme, but kept it from one of them. The four members did not want to lose but allegedly hid what they knew from officials, as they were concerned about the consequences.

In the end, this move backfired.

All four members who were notified were handed bans from Valorant competitions of between six months to a year, while Chung and the gamer he roped in were banned for three years.

Chung allegedly tried to pay off his teammates after the loss, but they rejected the offer.

As for the length of bans, Riot Games said they were handed out based on the level of culpability and cooperation during investigations.

“We want to provide our professional teams with a fair and transparent environment to compete both regionally and globally, so we take any violation of our rules of play very seriously.”

This is the first known case of e-sports match-fixing in Singapore.

Featured Image: Twitter (calel336); RSG.GG (Facebook)