Former iBuyPower Player DaZeD Considers Return to Competitive Counter-Strike if Match-Fixing Players are Allowed
Counter-Strike analyst Sam “DaZeD” Marine recently announced in a YouTube video that he is contemplating a return to competitive Counter-Strike, under the condition that ESL permits match-fixing players to participate in its tournaments.
DaZeD is well-known for his role as the in-game leader of the former iBuyPower roster in late 2014. However, the entire roster, except for Tyler “skadoodle” Latham, was banned from Valve-sanctioned Majors and other major tournaments in early 2015 due to their involvement in a match-fixing scandal. Valve, the creators of Steam and developers of Counter-Strike, voiced their opposition to match-fixing and its negative impact on professional integrity and fair play.
Since their forced retirement, the CS:GO community has been advocating for the unbanning of DaZeD, Braxton “swag” Pierce, Josh “steel” Nissan, and Keven “AZK” Larivière – collectively known as the “#FreeiBP” movement. This movement gained momentum when swag served as a stand-in for Cloud9 at BeyondTheSummit’s CS_Summit event.
Related: New evidence reveals match-fixing at the highest level of American Counter-Strike
During the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, ESL player liaisons met with professional players to discuss the league’s bans on cheaters and match-fixers. DaZeD mentioned that the players unanimously supported the reintegration of the former iBP players into ESL tournaments. This may be influenced by ESL’s previous allowance of cheaters, like Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian, to return to compete.
DaZeD expressed optimism, stating, “Hopefully that means [iBuyPower] will be unbanned by ESL at least, and then maybe other organizations will follow suit. Even if it were just ESL, it would be enough for me to probably play in some competitive fashion.”
However, it is important to note that DaZeD has not personally communicated with anyone at ESL regarding this matter. If the iBuyPower players were to be unbanned, it could potentially trigger a massive roster shuffle in North America – potentially the largest in history.
DaZeD stated, “So for now, until I know and until I have some answers, I won’t be accepting casting gigs for the future after ECS. I won’t be committing to anything long-term because I want to see what my options are if [we are unbanned].”
The complete unbanning of iBuyPower would mark an unprecedented event in the history of Counter-Strike.
Counter-Strike, eSports, match-fixing, competitive, iBuyPower, ESL, unbanning, professional players, North American, tournament, Valve, Steam