steel's "indefinite" ban set to finally expire in 2025
Late last night, Joshua "steel" Nissan revealed that his indefinite, later made permanent, ban from all Valve-sponsored events would be sunset on January 26, 2025. The announcement shocked many, with some not even believing the tweet and thinking the former Ghost IGL was joking.
In a statement to HLTV, steel confirmed that the announcement was legitimate. He continued that Valve "set a specific date for me" and believes that others as part of the iBuyPower scandal had received similar communications. steel did not ask the others about their situations and Dust2.us has not been able to reach other group members for comment.
The now 33-year-old former star has spent the last few months playing in Counter-Strike following a short career in VALORANT playing for teams like 100 Thieves and T1. steel has been playing on Bad News Bears in the ESL Challenger League North America where the team is currently 2-10. However, with steel being able to qualify for Majors in the near future, who knows what the future holds for the legendary IGL.
steel had chosen to move to VALORANT, seeing as he could compete in all competitions, unlike in Counter-Strike, thanks to Valve's ban following the iBUYPOWER matchfixing scandal in 2015. steel, alongside Sam "DaZeD' Marine, Braxton "swag" Pierce, Keven "AZK" Larivière, and most notably Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham were accused of having purposely lost a game against NetcodeGuides.com in August 2014. While the former four players earned an indefinite ban from the game, Skadoodle was not as he had never accepted payment as part of the scheme.
Fans of North America are already welcoming the older leader back into the fold, however the Canadian has already taken his impending freedom with a bit of a joke, tweeting out that he can't wait to play in The International soon enough.
