Chapter One: The iBUYPOWER Betting Scandal
In August 2014, the North American CS:GO team iBUYPOWER suffered a devastating loss in a CEVO match against NetcodeGuides.org. Viewers were suspicious of the team’s unexpectedly poor performance. It was later revealed that they had thrown the match to win valuable in-game items called weapon skins, worth a lot of money on the marketplace, by betting against themselves. Valve, the game’s developer, responded by imposing indefinite bans on most of the players, which were later upgraded to lifetime bans after a year.
A Song of Ice and Fire
The following is a stylized re-telling of the iBUYPOWER betting scandal, inspired by George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, popularly known as Game of Thrones.
Chapter Two: The Suspicion
The men of House iBUYPOWER left the tournament ground in silence. The audience and the victors, the Guides of Netcode, were stunned by the result. Standing by the exits, the men in loungewear counted their wagered coins, but no spectators approached them to collect. The heavily favored champions had lost, and it raised suspicions.
Sitting among the commoners, Maester Richard Lewis, a knowledgeable man, was troubled by the unknown. While it wasn’t unheard of for a team like Netcode Guides to defeat iBUYPOWER, the manner in which the match unfolded was disturbing. Their strikes were missed, their rotations were slow, and it seemed like they didn’t care. The performance was suspiciously poor.
Maester Lewis turned to his friend Duncan Thorinshield, hoping to voice his concerns, but the historian had nothing to say for once. Lewis then noticed ShahZam, a young competitor who hadn’t moved from his seat since the match began. The young man’s face revealed that he knew something he wished he didn’t.
Chapter Three: The Revelation
Maester Lewis climbed the long steps to his study, pondering if the gods had added more staircases to torment him. Nothing unsettled him more than unanswered questions. The excuses from iBUYPOWER only added to the confusion: extensive travel, tiredness, unfamiliarity with the tournament grounds. Maybe they did lose fair and square.
As Lewis sat exhausted in his chair, a woman appeared in his doorway. She introduced herself as Ashley Lebeouf, also known as “The Black Lotus,” and handed him a stack of letters from Derek Boorn, a member of House Torqued who courted her. These letters contained answers to the mystery surrounding the betting scandal.
Chapter Four: The Royal Judgment
Maester Lewis hurried to the throne room to inform King Gaben of his findings. He joined the master of whispers, the tournament organizer, and the gambling master, who sought an audience with the king. The king’s decision would have serious consequences.
In the throne room, King Gaben addressed the seven men accused of conspiring to harm the integrity of Counter-Strike. The evidence against them was undeniable. The king decreed an indefinite banishment from the kingdom of Valve-halla, marking a new era of integrity and fair play. The men of House iBUYPOWER left quietly, and their bans were later made permanent.
Epilogue
After a year of banishment, there were calls to end the uncertainty surrounding the bans. On the one-year anniversary, King Gaben decided to keep the ban in place for life. Some of the banished players found success in other tournaments outside of Valve-halla, but their reputation remained tainted. ShahZam, Skadoodle, and Hiko went on to join other North houses and continued to compete at a high level.
The North will never forget that fateful day in August, forever known as the Red Betting.