# eSports, Corruption, and Speaking Out



## Ryukouki (Mar 13, 2014)

​So this bit surprised me. First off, I apologize for my absence. Had to deal with some other things off-site. I was going to take a small break to catch up with my own life, but this piece really got my attention earlier today. For those of you wondering, this guy is Cheon Min-Ki, a pro-level _League of Legends _player hailing from South Korea. From what I have heard, this young man is good enough to be considered the top 0.5% in the world. As of this morning, he attempted suicide by jumping off a twelve story building. Why? It turns out, the team he represented, AHQ Korea, was a sham team that made profits off of losing (fixing games) and then making profits off of the underdog winnings. Min-Ki was not directly responsible for the incident, however. This guy's teammates and himself were basically strung along for the ride, leaving his manager, Noh Dae Chul, responsible for the crimes. I'll discuss more about this after the break, but this case definitely is interesting as it shows how some aspects of gaming are not as clean-cut as we would like to imagine.​​[prebreak]Continue reading[/prebreak]​​From what I have seen right now, Min-Ki is in critical condition, with severe head and back injuries. He left a rather in-depth suicide note detailing the problems he was facing with his manager. This was translated from a Reddit thread, after being posted from a Korean _Legends _community. It's a really fascinating read, though very unfortunate, and I sincerely hope this guy recovers because he has guts for doing this.​​


> Hello everyone, I am former LoL pro Pimir. I was on ahq Korea, also known as ahq K Promise. I also used names such as patience/AD Pimir etc. My death note is on my face book and i will be gone 5 minutes after i post this so proof that its really pimir will be on my kakaotalk and facebook. I am writing on inven today to tell you about game fixing well since im gonna be gone soon. Conclusion first. Me and Actscene (another ahq korea player) were only ones who were actually involved in the game fixings and other teammates kenw about it after the games. Purpose of Game Fixing: Manager Noh's Toto -toto is korean illegal betting on sports games including LoL Timeframe: 2013 Lol Champs Spring Manager Noh told the teammates taht if we don't lose to big teams (KT, CJ etc), Ongamenet threatened the team that they would not be able to play in the playoffs. Obviously its a lie but we knew about it afterwrds. Manager Noh told all of us, and Hoon said he won't be a part of it. Manager Noh called me and Actscene later that night, and we believed him so we would put game fixing to action. Game Fixing vs KTB game 1 and 2 vs CJF game 1 and 2 if you look at all four games you will see that we gave first blood in all of teh games. game against KT, we were losing then we came back. We knew we could win the game, but in my mind we had to lose. The calls over voice and Manager Noh's voices kept on coming into my mind and I was confused the fuck out of myself. I thought this is fucking mad and they won. Game 2 vs KT, was not fixed we couldnt win at all.
> 
> When we were playing CJ, manager Noh threatened that if you win a game here, AHQ will be DQd from LoLChamps. In game vs KT, as a professional player, obvsly I wanted to win and did so. However, in game vs CJ, the threat made me realize that all my effort in becoming a pro will be useless if I win this game. I purposely didnt deal damage in team fights, flashed and ezreal E'd forward to be killed etc. We beat CJ in the morning of the game day in a scrim as well, with the exact same team comp they used in the OGN game. Hoon and I carreid the scrim. after the game, I told Hoon about the whole thing and Hoon was already having conflicts with the Manager. He said there's something off about him and because he's had long career as a professional gamer already, I guess he had senses to realize werid things the manager was doing. Why Manager Noh told us to Fix Games When we first made the team, AHQ didnt actually sponsor us in cash. THey just gave us gaming gear and the team name. Manager Noh borrowed money for our living costs, housing, computer, our pay etc. Players didnt know about this and learned about it later. He was going to play illegal sports gambling by fixing games to pay back all the borrowed money + make profits. I will mention my skype convo with actual AHQ person later for proof.


 
*Detailing the Extent of Corruption*


> When we told teammates that game fixing happend and how Noh reacted. Because every teammate knew, we talked to manager noh after our game against SKT. He told us that we should lose vs Najin 2:0 later that week, make shitton of money and GTFO from pro scene. We told him that we arent interested in Toto gambling and we wont do it. Even at this point we didnt know that AHQ didnt sponsor us and when we came back to the living quarters after the Najin game, 3 computers were sold and he was clearing the house. He said he couldnt pay the rent and the apt said we should leave. That we would lose gas, electricity and water (even though it was Manager Noh who tried to cut them off on his own unsuccessfully). We had Lg game coming up so we said we will stay at the living quarters until the LG game. We asked why he sold our practice omputters and Noh said AHQ is demanding money from the team. WHen i talked to actual management from AHQ in Taiwan later, none of this ever happened and they never gave them computers either. Also they never gave any of the gaming gear to manager Noh but the players themselves. I asked if we cuold keep rest of the gear for practice and he said for sure. Noh was selling our practice computers so he could pay off the deb and run. So after our next game againt Najin, we told him we are going to leave the team. We are going to get paid for the months that he hasnt paid us. Noh told us taht I cant give you the money right now and that he will instead not take the 50% commission of the prize money if AHQ were to win. Entire team already knew from talking to management in Taiwan that Noh was lying, that AHQ never sponsored cash, and the computers hes selling are not AHQs so why is he trying to pay back money to AHQ?
> 
> Noh lied that AHQ had rights to prize moneys and that he has to pay them although we already kenw he was lying out of his ass. We gave him evidence that we knew he was lying but he woul just argue its not true. After 2~3 hours of arguing we agreed that Noh would pay back the pay we've missed over the months and tha the wouldnt touch the prize money from OGN. We couldnt practice for a week because of this and played vsLg IM game, and Najin eventaually won. We couldve done better and I knew I couldve done better but thanks to this my pro life was over and all i had left was feeling of emptiness after practicign to my best for a year.
> 
> 3 line conclusion Im not in this world after 5 minutes AHQ korea was a team made by Noh to make money off illegal gambling, teammates didnt know and we had to fix games because of this. AHQ Taiwan never sponsored korean team and was a lie. I am sorry for all of this and I cant tell you everything but I am leaving now as I cant deal with this anymore.


 
This poor guy had a disadvantaged background, and his manager was basically using his talents to become rich, holding their pride as skilled game players over their heads. It turns out that their equipment, their housing, their salaries, were all loans that the manager took out. They were never sponsored officially by AHQ, only their equipment which gave them the naming rights to the team. Riot did issue a statement declaring that it would spare no expenses in the recovery of this fellow, and a police investigation regarding the game fixing is currently underway.

With that in mind, it seems a bit harsh, how gaming defined his life and because of the mountain of problems he was undergoing, it led him to jump off the roof of a building. Which leads me conveniently into my issues: corruption in eSports, and the fear of speaking out.

When thinking about the corruption issue, it's sad when you see people who are so disadvantaged financially, being taken advantage of; having their talents utilized for someone else's greed, playing the game that they love. This corruption issue is supposedly rampant in these types of games, with people making illegal bets on these games, something punishable by jail time. It's weird, because if the issue is so rampant as people say, why are these guys not being better educated on the issue? What right do people have in justifying this? How could you justify ruining the lives of people for greed? Some people sardonically criticize eSports, thinking that there's no real skill involved with these types of games, and yet these tournaments have huge payouts that could set a player up for life financially after a few big wins.

Speaking out is also a bit of a problem in these gaming groups. There are some articles that describe players being tortured (yes, tortured, with pain) over poor gaming results. This Reddit thread details some of those incidents as well, about players being caned, being beaten for performing badly. Min-Ki definitely set off some waves with this incident. To you, though, would it be worth speaking out, risking your life, to detail this sort of corruption and fear that exists in such a society? Is it worth dealing with the backlash, or is it better to keep the head down and simply continue forward?

Personally, I'd like to wish this guy a safe recovery, and hope that this manager ends up in prison. At the end of the day, though, there are some who claim that this is typical eSports, which has some concerns as, when you look at it, people are dying or getting injured over a _game!_ Where do you guys stand in terms of this? Have you heard of this incident yet? I'm definitely fascinated with the idea of corruption that occurs in the video gaming industry, but this just seems out of the ordinary as someone almost died for it. Chime off in the comments below.

Source - Eurogamer


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## Black-Ice (Mar 14, 2014)

Tbh the Korean/Chinese scene's are very very competitive.
Thier Coaches/Managers aren't coaches/managers, they're overlords.
Compared to EU/NA its a whole different ball game over there, its almost scary how intense it is.
Promise has received loads of love from the west in the form of donations and what not. Hopefully he recovers well and tries to move on.


As far as the western LoL pro scene goes, its a great experience to watch and be a part of. The LCS (League Championship series, basically the premier league)  is something I watch weekly and its so much more fun to watch that most other sports.
Riot have really worked on stopping corruption and evil boardroom tactics here but they need to up the efforts overseas because this isnt an isolated incident, its just a climatic one.


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## tbgtbg (Mar 14, 2014)

I don't really get the whole professional gaming thing in the first place, but wow, hope that guy recovers and gets some help so he doesn't try again.


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## Ericthegreat (Mar 14, 2014)

You do know that this happens in all sports right....? Hope the guy is alright, but there was no reason he should commit suicide over it.... Also I wonder how much they were going to be paid to lose >.> ?


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## FAST6191 (Mar 14, 2014)

Crass as it may seem I am half impressed; previously everything I saw as far as cheating and competition theory goes in computer games was not even amateur level.

To that end, and not directed at the dude that failed to fly, welcome to the real world lads, we play by big boy rules here.


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## Foxi4 (Mar 14, 2014)

Speaking of eSports, I'm thinking of attending Intel Extreme Masters on Saturday or Sunday - I could snap a couple photos if anyone's interested.


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## WhiteMaze (Mar 14, 2014)

What a shame..

The GBATemp community wishes you a fast and healthy recovery, Cheon Min-Ki.


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## WiiCube_2013 (Mar 14, 2014)

He looks as though he's going to take part in an automobile race but nope, it's just video games.


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## Gahars (Mar 14, 2014)

You give people video games, demand that no fun be allowed, dangle money and fame in their faces, and this is what you get.

I can understand the appeal of professional gaming (I mean, I don't care for MOBAs or Starcraft, but I can at least see how it'd be interesting for people who are to watch), but I think it's become far too serious for its own good. With millions of dollars on the line and entire careers at stake, and true regulation being so difficult to implement and maintain, you have a recipe for disaster.

It seems like there's another horror story from the esports scene every other week. Match rigging here, abuse there, at some point you have to wonder if it's even worth it at this point.


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## calmwaters (Mar 14, 2014)

Well well; so a greedy bastard has been unmasked. It's a shame that such a tragic event would have to happen for something like this to be uncovered. Let that be a lesson to all you people: if you find something distasteful, reveal it to the public. The longer you live with it increases the stress of your daily life, enough to consider doing what this person did.

And thank you Ryu for writing a piece: I was missing them. I like taking a break from reading all the shit on this site to read a well written article like yours.  And I hope you have fun with your time away from here.


Foxi4 said:


> Speaking of eSports, I'm thinking of attending Intel Extreme Masters on Saturday or Sunday - I could snap a couple photos if anyone's interested.


 
Sure; sounds cool. You could get a cup of coffee and have a picture of that to go along with the other ones. 


Gahars said:


> You give people video games, demand that no fun be allowed, dangle money and fame in their faces, and this is what you get.
> 
> I can understand the appeal of professional gaming (I mean, I don't care for MOBAs or Starcraft, but I can at least see how it'd be interesting for people who are to watch), but I think it's become far too serious for its own good. With millions of dollars on the line and entire careers at stake, and true regulation being so difficult to implement and maintain, you have a recipe for disaster.
> 
> It seems like there's another horror story from the esports scene every other week. Match rigging here, abuse there, at some point you have to wonder if it's even worth it at this point.


If people were as vocal as they believe themselves to be, we wouldn't have issues like these. But this is an imperfect world; especially this one: most of the world considers gamers to be like children who only want to be immersed in their games and thereby shut out the rest of society. And most children lack the gumption to stand up for themselves, mostly for fear that they'll be ostracized. I mean, it's a good goal for someone to be accepted into society, but only if they're allowed freedom of expression will they really be happy. It's not worth anyone's time to give up their personality to fit in with everyone else.


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## Ryukouki (Mar 14, 2014)

calmwaters said:


> And thank you Ryu for writing a piece: I was missing them. I like taking a break from reading all the shit on this site to read a well written article like yours.  And I hope you have fun with your time away from here.


 

Don't mind me, I just had to type out 32 pages of reports in the past week.


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## WhiteMaze (Mar 14, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> Don't mind me, I just had to type out 32 pages of reports in the past week.


 
Keep up the good work.

(imagines himself in his position and shivers)


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## Ryukouki (Mar 14, 2014)

Don't worry. Breaks come only every so often, as I need time to refresh the pool of creativity.


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## WhiteMaze (Mar 14, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> Don't worry. Breaks come only every so often, as I need time to refresh the pool of creativity.


 
As a designer and artist, I understand that statement all too well.


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## Ulieq (Mar 14, 2014)

Hilarious.  I love games, but get a real job.


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## Hyro-Sama (Mar 14, 2014)

lol "eSports"

I don't think I'll ever take that term seriously.


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## WiiCube_2013 (Mar 14, 2014)

Ulieq said:


> Hilarious. I love games, but get a real job.


 
This sometimes is hard to define because there are jobs that are so ridiculous it's almost unreal they're considered "real jobs".


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## AceWarhead (Mar 14, 2014)

Another huge incident was back in the Brood War days, where  people were found to have match fixed/betted, and it included a star player at that. Here is a link
eSports in Korea is huge, and you have to look back on things like the Brood War scene to understand how important this stuff is to Korea.
Nevertheless, unless a player union is made, this shit is going to keep on happening.
Just a couple of months ago, a player Hyun was bascially left for dead by his team, with the manager running of and owing him around $25,000 in prize money


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## WiiUBricker (Mar 14, 2014)

I don't understand. What does he mean by fixing games?


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## Black-Ice (Mar 14, 2014)

WiiUBricker said:


> I don't understand. What does he mean by fixing games?


 
"You lose to this team and this team, they are big Korean team, pay big money for everlasting top of table fame, do it or big consequence!"

as it basically says in the article



Ulieq said:


> Hilarious. I love games, but get a real job.


 
The money these pro players make equates to pretty decent modern day salaries, it IS a real job with legit career paths branching out for retired players. 
Far more "real" than being a receptionist.


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## Veho (Mar 14, 2014)

Ulieq said:


> Hilarious.  I love games, but get a real job.


You could say that about any sport.


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## Taleweaver (Mar 14, 2014)

This is news to me, but unfortunate to say, it doesn't strike me as a surprise. If anything, it should actually surprise me that it didn't happen sooner. There are two main ingredients for this:

1. South Korea and its fixation on gaming. If you're very good at gaming in Europe or the US, you get some mild sponsors and a following consisting of nerds. In South Korea, it means you're a fucking rock star. And as far as I can believe sources on the internet, that isn't even an exaggeration. Fast money, faster women and crowds that easily number in the football stadion numbers. While the rest of the world is contemplating whether esports are a real sport, South Koreans have training regimes that easily matches the intensity real athletes have to indure for their sport (in fact, it could very well go beyond that).
Of course, competition is a bitch. On starcraft ladders, teams are usually divided into "Koreans" and "foreigners". And Koreans usually win. And I've heard that even on public ladders, the Korean servers are at least some notches above the theoretical same skill tier in other countries.
2. gambling mentality. Perhaps I'm overly generalizing, but gambling is more an issue in China...and probably in Korea as well (it's not my intention to be racist here, but until any proof otherwise I kind of think this holds true for them as well). About five or six years ago, we had a scandal of our own here: there was this Chinaman who became interested in sponsoring Belgian soccer teams. At first, all seemed fine, but this too turned out to be a cover-up for a greater scam that involved Chinese people gambling on the results of football teams. Yes...there were actually people in China who made bets on small football teams in freakin' BELGIUM! (ahem...like we need someone to bribe us into losing a match...our teams are well qualified for that on their own  ).
Whatever the case, I'm willing to bet that whenever a superbowl-equivalent of a game (starcraft or LoL...whatever is popular these days) is going to be played, huge bets will be made. And wherever there is bets, there are things that aren't that ethical.
I don't know the laws regarding gambling in the country, nor do I know to what degree gamers are legally protected from these sorts of scams...but this is really the sort of issue they need to solve before it starts hurting the actual popularity of their national sports (and once again: this is with no sense of sarcasm or irony...video games really ARE their national sports).



Black-Ice said:


> "You lose to this team and this team, they are big Korean team, pay big money for everlasting top of table fame, do it or big consequence!"
> 
> as it basically says in the article


Erm...sorry, but no. In the way this works, the team you're allowing to win probably doesn't even know about it. All in all, it's simple gambling that fans often tend to do. Before the match, both teams are seized up on skill, accuracy and stuff like that. Based on that, estimates are made as to what the chances of the outcome will be. What the manager does, in this case, is make a huge "gamble" that his own team will lose (most likely not under his own name). More specifically to a certain score (like 2:0 against Najin). Then it's only a matter of making sure that your team doesn't do something stupid like "winning the match".


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## WiiCube_2013 (Mar 14, 2014)

If you're being paid well then that's their job, it's no different than any out there really.

Ronaldo is one of the best football players (better than Messi) and just for one match, or even one goal he's paid ridiculously high amounts that'd take years for the average person to achieve.


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## WiiUBricker (Mar 14, 2014)

Black-Ice said:


> "You lose to this team and this team, they are big Korean team, pay big money for everlasting top of table fame, do it or big consequence!"
> 
> as it basically says in the article


 
So, fixing games = losing a game?


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## Black-Ice (Mar 14, 2014)

WiiUBricker said:


> So, fixing games = losing a game?


 
Stop and think about what you're saying.
I'm not taking this convo any further.


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## WiiCube_2013 (Mar 14, 2014)

Fixing is just another term for rigged/paid.

Let's take for example IGN and COD games, for as long as I can remember they give them 9's and are they worth that high score? Of course not but Activision pays them so that people who're unaware of how broken and recycled those games are will buy them simply for the reviews they've seen by IGN.

I still find it odd how Titanfall got an 8.9/10 from IGN considering all that hype and news posts that they'd constantly make. I honestly was expecting a 10/10, if not, then a 9.9/10.

Anyhow, here's hoping Titanfall 2 actually has an offline story mode (I don't play online very often and much less with paid subscriptions).


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## shakirmoledina (Mar 15, 2014)

Personally I believe everything on air or done in a social arena is fixed and just cannot be upon 'skill' and 'fate' alone.


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## WarMachine77 (Mar 15, 2014)

Taleweaver said:


> This is news to me, but unfortunate to say, it doesn't strike me as a surprise. If anything, it should actually surprise me that it didn't happen sooner. There are two main ingredients for this:
> 
> 1. South Korea and its fixation on gaming. If you're very good at gaming in Europe or the US, you get some mild sponsors and a following consisting of nerds. In South Korea, it means you're a fucking rock star. And as far as I can believe sources on the internet, that isn't even an exaggeration. Fast money, faster women and crowds that easily number in the football stadion numbers. While the rest of the world is contemplating whether esports are a real sport, South Koreans have training regimes that easily matches the intensity real athletes have to indure for their sport (in fact, it could very well go beyond that).
> Of course, competition is a bitch. On starcraft ladders, teams are usually divided into "Koreans" and "foreigners". And Koreans usually win. And I've heard that even on public ladders, the Korean servers are at least some notches above the theoretical same skill tier in other countries.
> ...


 

So they were a series of guesses made by the manager? And consistent? Interesting..because that's what I was thinking..how do you throw a bunch of games?


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## _Mary_ (Mar 15, 2014)

Ryukouki said:


> ​So this bit surprised me. First off, I apologize for my absence. Had to deal with some other things off-site. I was going to take a small break to catch up with my own life, but this piece really got my attention earlier today. For those of you wondering, this guy is Cheon Min-Ki, a pro-level _League of Legends _player hailing from South Korea. From what I have heard, this young man is good enough to be considered the top 0.5% in the world. As of this morning, he attempted suicide by jumping off a twelve story building. Why? It turns out, the team he represented, AHQ Korea, was a sham team that made profits off of losing (fixing games) and then making profits off of the underdog winnings. Min-Ki was not directly responsible for the incident, however. This guy's teammates and himself were basically strung along for the ride, leaving his manager, Noh Dae Chul, responsible for the crimes. I'll discuss more about this after the break, but this case definitely is interesting as it shows how some aspects of gaming are not as clean-cut as we would like to imagine.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 


ugh what a waste. <.< just like here too, when someone killed his friend over dota -_- ..


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## FAST6191 (Mar 15, 2014)

WiiUBricker said:


> So, fixing games = losing a game?



Fixing a game = doing anything to influence the outcome for either team that is not within the rules or fair play. This can include losing on purpose, losing can be financially profitable for many reasons. There are three main schools of thought though
1) You lose and the winner kicks back a bit of the winnings
2) Favours at a later date. Sumo wrestling had a great worked example of this in Freakonomics, you can see part of it here. If I am already through to the finals then I do not care if I lose the next round in a division, my opponent might need to win here to make it through and I could then be convinced to take a dive.
3) You lose as the betting odds are better here. Worked example in a minute.

What one you do depends upon the competition setup (the maths of running a contest is not easy at all) and what you can do as far as betting. Naturally you can combine a few of them -- if I know I am losing thanks to 2) then any financial incentives can be paid for by betting against me.

The worked example of 3.

If I were to fight the boxing champ of the world tomorrow it is fairly safe to say I would lose. Betting odds on me winning would then be thousands to one where betting odds on the champ would be about 1:1.0000000001 or worse.
If I convince them to take a dive then the £50 I had riding on myself transforms into hundreds of thousands where the £50 anybody had riding on the champ (if that was even above minimum bet) is now the £50 stake and a few pence more. Nobody would believe I won for real though so in reality I convince the champ to go slightly easy on me so I last three rounds. When I get TKOed in the third round the people that have a bet on that happening get a nice win and nobody loses face.
Now the odds here might not be as extreme but that is what I am seeing.
Alternatively betting is easy if you know the future and taking a dive means your are guaranteed to win your bet.

So far any cheating we ever heard about was truly amateur hour and boring, the best one for me prior to this was probably in the smash brothers stuff, an otherwise terrible competitive circuit, where a couple of people were accused of not going all out to help protect skills from being seen before another bigger contest. This reflects a greater amount of thought having gone into things -- if we must have crimes then make them good ones.


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## gamesquest1 (Mar 16, 2014)

all the bashing about e-sports could apply to real sport's why run around a field all day kicking a ball?
............because it pays your bill's of course, its just exactly the same as any other job, you use your natural/honed talents to earn yourself an income, if anyone here genuinely had the skill to make a living playing games I'm sure they would take it.

but as with any other competitive industry their will always be corruption and people abusing their power/position to manipulate results to gain extra money this is just as common in real life sports,but still that's just human nature and its sad to see that its so bad it would lead someone to try to kill themselves, hope he has a speedy recovery and gets a place on a legitimate team with legitimate honest sponsorship's


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## Tattorack (Mar 17, 2014)

Holy fuck! That manager should be pushed off a 12 story building! That guy is real dirt!
I hope he recovers so he can open the shitpit wide!


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## Hop2089 (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm not surprised, East Asia in general is filled to the brim with managers and upper brass that can be described as crooks and complete tyrants and they expect you to do even illegal shit without complaint or question.


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## gamesquest1 (Mar 17, 2014)

wonder what happens when it gets so bad that every team is being pressured to loose, matches going on for years because the players on both sides are to scared to make any moves? first team to get DQ'ed "wins"


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