More bans issued by Valve, ESL over Counter-Strike: Global Offensive match-fixing

More bans have been issued by Valve and the ESL over match fixing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, with three teams scheduled to participate in the offline qualifier for ESL One Katowice 2015 disqualified.

According to a statement posted on the CCS:GO thread of the ESL website, Epsilon eSports, ex-ESC Gaming and WinneR all have players on their teams found to have been involved in match fixing.

The teams are no longer allowed to take part in next week’s qualifier in Katowice, Poland.

A statement from Valve regarding the ban was posted by the ESL, with a list of 14 other players unable to participate in CS:GO matches for at least the duration of 2015.

"The restrictions are indefinite, and will not be re-evaluated before 2016," read the statement from Valve, which also cited five more players unable to participate due to a pending investigation.

"Professional players, teams, and anyone involved in the production of CS:GO events, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches," said Valve, or associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets."

Valve said sait it expects players planning to take part, in any future Valve-sponsored events should "hold themselves to a high standard of professional integrity."

ESL said unsportsmanlike behavior such as match fixing, "will not be tolerated." Banned players will not be unable to play in any ESL CS:GO tournaments until the cases are reviewed by Valve.

The continued investigation into match-fixing stems from a situation which occurred last August, when a Counter-Strike match between iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides.com was found to have been been fixed.

The ESL tournament taking place next month in Katowice, Poland runs March 12-15 and has a $250,000 prize pool.

In order to fill the now vacant spots, a last chance tournament has been scheduled for tomorrow, February 8, with the top two teams from this tournament replacing the disqualified teams.

Thanks, PCgameN.