The gaming industry has evolved from entertainment to business - eSports Is now a major event, and the biggest companies use participating teams as their advertising spaces. With so much going on in the world of gaming, matchfixing and controversies have been spilling in the scene. As of late, two popular figures in the professional StarCraft 2 scenes in Korea have recently been charged with matchfixing and will be banned from joining in the action.
According to reports, about 12 people have been charged with matchfixing. The figures involved are PRIME head coach Gerrard (Park Wae-Sik) and professional gamers YoDa (Choi Beyeong-Heon) and BboongBBoong *Choie Jong-Hyuk. The Korean eSports Association, popularly known as KeSPA, has announced that they will be banning the three figures for life. According to the statement, KeSPA had been tipped off to the matchfixing and had been holding their investigation before the criminal investigation had taken place. The eSports association will also be filing civil suits for damages against the match-fixers in addition to the charges the three are already facing.
"The case is currently under investigation, and as such we expect details to be released at a later time by the Prosecutor's office. The association will actively cooperate in the investigation, and if any others are found to be involved in the case, they will be banned for life regardless of the result of a trial," said Cho Man Soo, Director of the Korean eSports Association in the official announcement. "Depending on the circumstances, the association may sue for damages and/or file charges on grounds of obstruction,"
According to reports and speculations, Gerrard had been facing financial difficulties that he resorted to 'extreme measures.' PRIME's head coach was reportedly in a considerable debt and had contacted his friends and family for financial resources.
Furthermore, brokers and financial backers have also been arrested. Enough (Seong Jun-mo), a former programer and an eSports journalist had acted as a broker, and two financial backers that paid brokers to fix matches, were gangsters with links to organized crime.
