Two Korean e-sports champions have been charged with match fixing after allegedly receiving a big amount of money to intentionally lose two matches in May 2015. South Korea has already indicted 10 people which include the said champion players of Global Starcraft League.
According to BBC News, Lee "Life" Seung Hyun, a champion player of the Global Starcraft League game, has been charged with match mixing after prosecutors found out that he was paid worth 70 million won (£42,000) to purposely lose games last year.
The other pro-game top player, Jung "Bbyong" Woo Yong, was also charged for receiving payment worth 30 million won to lose on this year's January match. According to the South Korean authorities conducting a second investigation into e-sports match-fixing in the country, they have arrested and charged eight people so far involving the case.
The people involved in the match fixing schemes were financial backers, their employees as well the brokers who arranged the match and bets, Kotaku reported. Backers provide the money, while brokers set up the deal and employees go to the online gambling sites to place bets.
According to the investigations, Life and Bbyong were approached and convinced by brokers who were posing as fans to participate on the scheme. The brokers deceived them, saying everyone was doing it. Local authorities were alerted for the involvement of the StarCraft players on online gambling, as most of them were teenagers.
Life, 19-years old, who became a champion at the aged of 15, is a 10-time top player in Intel Extreme Masters, the Blizzard Cup, Major League Gaming and other circuits, according to Polygon. The match fixing probe began in January in connection to the first case back in October.
The first case also involved an ex-champion of StarCraft pro tournament, Sun "Enough" Jun Mo, 34-years old, who was also charged with match fixing. He was accused of being a benefactor for Life. Sun was convicted to the charges and was sentenced with two years of imprisonment, three years of suspension and ban by the Korean eSports Association from playing for life.
