iBUYPOWER bans eight years on
A scandal that changed the NA landscape forever, and possibly the most famous of all CS:GO scandals. Valve's rock-solid stance on the permanent nature of the bans condemned the players to find other competitive pursuits, even when both ESL and ESEA lifted their own bans on the players. iBUYPOWER has never returned to housing a competitive team and the scars left on the NA scene are still evident.
The scandal was originally reported on by Richard Lewis, who was initially met with intense pushback and criticism despite being a reputable personality in the scene. Whilst there were rumors immediately after iBUYPOWER's match vs NetcodeGuides.com on August 20th, 2014, it wasn't until the following year that people began to take the accusations seriously.
In January 2015 Richard Lewis posted a follow-up article with significant evidence that implicated multiple members of the iBP team being involved with the match-fixing scandal. The first domino to fall was the leaking of Derek "DboorN" Boorn's messages to his former girlfriend, in which he confirmed the match was fixed and he had even told iBUYPOWER IGL Sam "DaZeD" Marine to make the match closer.
However, the smoking gun was the discovery of the identity of the person who had been partaking in the irregular betting patterns surrounding the match. Duc "cud" Pham a rather unimpressive player, who peaked at ESEA Main with LunatiK esports, was a known trader and skin better in the NA scene and it was he who directly placed all the bets on behalf of the iBUYPOWER players. Using nine smurf accounts to place the max allowed bet he racked up a return of $1193.14 on each account.
With the new information CSGOLounge went public with their findings of irregular betting patterns, now having beefed up their position with the leeked conversations from DboorN and the identity of the bettor cud. This forced Valve to take action and, after their own investigation, they released a short but damning conclusion on the 26th January 2015. The entire iBUYPOWER team was banned, apart from AWPer Tyler "skadoodle" Latham who had been cleared of any involvement. Along with them cud and Casey Foster the owner of netcodeguides.com, were also banned from participating in Valve sponsored events.
With the length of the bans being indefinite it was the hope that the players would be allowed to return if they tried to make good on their mistake. Joshua "Steel" Nissan in particular went out of his way to try and make amends to get a shot at once again playing the game he loved for a living. In 2017 ESL and ESEA would lift their respective bans on the players, meaning that after two years of full exile they could at least participate in non sponsored events and importantly the ESEA league system.
This saw steel and previous young prodigy Braxton "swag" Pierce return to the top level of North American CS as they both became regulars in the top division of North America. swag had stints on Torqued, Lazarus and swole patrol whilst he also stood in for Cloud9 at cs_summit Spring 2017. steel was the most successful returnee, as he went to turn Ghost into a top NA side followed up by building Chaos into a domestic powerhouse up until his departure in 2020.
Both the revered IGL and the former young star made their way to VALORANT upon the release of Riots competitive shooter, mainly due to the fact that Valve refused to be swayed into lifting the bans on the players despite nearly half a decade out in the cold. The Valve stance is understandable in theory, the permanent nature of the ban should put off future infractions. However, we all know this has not had the desired effect, with multiple match-fixing investigations going on around the Counter-Strike world and even a fresh one on North American sures (if ESIC ever release it). So why keep them banned?
Two years ago steel was still one of the best IGL's in NA, the only thing stopping him from making the jump to one of the regions elite teams was his ban from Majors. If Valve had decided that the time served and his obvious remorse was punishment enough the Canadian IGL could have spent the past two years leading a region that is desperate for IGL's. Now its too late, steel moved to VALORANT and it is a case of what could of been for the potentially great talent of the iBUYPOWER roster.
Eight years on the iBUYPOWER scandal is a warning to all upcoming players that if they seriously want to play on the big stage, to stick to the straight and narrow but it is also an example of the ineffectiveness of permanent suspensions. At the end of the day no one came out winners, something Valve half admitted to themselves when they changed the permanent ban on VAC banned players to a five-year limit.
