Valve looks to be prepared to ban another team from Counter-Strike for match fixing.
One week it banned four former iBUYPOWER players and their cohorts in a match-fixing scandal, Valve has apparently stepped in again, this time by banning players associated with French team Epsilon.
The accusations first came to light after Robin “GMX” Stahmer was released from the squad. Stahmer had struggled with his play in recent matches and was known to have personal issues with other members of the team. So the decision was no surprise.
But Stahmer refused to go out quietly. Last week, he revealed to French website Vakarm that Epsilon had been involved in match fixing, specifically in a September 2014 match against Over Gaming. The team bet on the game and allowed Over Gaming to win in order to reap the benefits .
Valve apparently took those claims very seriously and conducted its own investigation.
Shortly after Stahmer’s revelation, Epsilon sniper Joey “Fxy0” Schlosser took to Facebook, claiming Valve had told him he’d be banned for the next year from all Counter-Strike tournaments associated with the developer. His claim was confirmed when Epsilon announced earlier today that both Schlosser and his teammate Kevin “Uzi” Vernel were being released from the team effective immediately.
Yesterday, Epsilon suspended the team until further information came to light. And it’s announcement today spoke to evidence it had seen which made clear the wrongdoing of the accused players, and Epsilon specifically thanked Valve for “keeping (Epsilon) informed during the entire process.”
Just as was the case when the former iBUYPOWER team was hit with bans by Valve and Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham was the sole player left unpunished, one member of Epsilon still remains with the team. Adil “Scream” Benrlitom, whom Stahmer had declared innocent in a posting on Facebook, was apparently untouched by Valve. The team said that Benrlitom will “continue to represent Epsilon” moving forward.
Valve have yet to offer an official comment.
Image via fxy0CS/Facebook
