The Counter Strike community has been getting beaten up in all sorts of ways as of late, with scandals, hacks and cheaters abound and it doesn't look likely to stop any time soon, as several professional CS players have been banned by Valve for match fixing.
Fortunately at least, this isn't some new scandal, but a finalisation of Valve's investigation into the IBUYPOWER matchfixing, betting fiasco which saw the team, recently ranked as the best in North America, throw a game against comparative noobs, NetCodeGuides. All of this was so that bets made by a compatriot of the team would net them several thousand dollars worth of skins and digital items.
However, they were found out and Valve was called in to give a ruling on the matter.
"All together, the information we have collected and received makes us uncomfortable continuing any involvement with these individuals," Valve said in a statement on the Counter-Strike blog.
With that in mind, it said that it had asked all professional CS:GO organisations to not allow for any of the following players to take part "in any capacity":
Duc "cud" Pham
Derek "dboorn" Boorn
Casey Foster
Sam "Dazed" Marine
Braxton "swag" Pierce
Keven "AZK" Larivière
Joshua "Steel" Nissan
It then went on to reiterate that no one linked with pro teams of any sort, should be gambling on the outcome of their games. Valve even goes so far as to recommend that nobody in a professional team even associate with known gamblers, as it could lead to suspicion.
Valve ended on a sweeter note however, pointing out that CS GO grew significantly in 2014 and it hoped to continue expanding the pro scene in 2015.
The question is, have fans grown tired of the hacking, cheating and match fixing?
