After a spate of official bannings in the wake of cheating in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive eSports community, Valve has issued a warning to the community in general to stop gambling, as it would tarnish their reputations as professional gamers and ruin the sport. Last month, Valve issued bans to a number of top-ranking North American CS players who were caught fixing their matches.
"Professional players, teams, and anyone involved in the production of CS:GO events, should under no circumstances gamble on CS:GO matches, associate with high volume CS:GO gamblers, or deliver information to others that might influence their CS:GO bets," Valve said in a statement today.
"To clarify – as a professional player, team manager or event production staff, it is common to have personal relationships and/or privileged information about other teams and players. Because of this, we will always assume that you have access to private CS:GO-related 'inside information' that might give you an unfair advantage when placing a bet on any CS:GO game or match.
"Betting using inside information, or even the perception or suspicion thereof, carries a significant risk of damaging your personal brand, your team, your community, and may lead to exclusion from future Valve-sponsored events.
“To avoid these risks, we recommend that you never bet on any CS:GO game or match. This recommendation applies both to current professional players and anyone who wishes to participate in a Valve-sponsored CS:GO event in the future.
“It’s important to consider the substantial impact an individual professional Counter-Strike player
has on the health and stability of the sport. Performing before an audience of millions of fans, you are ambassadors for your game – the strength of professional Counter-Strike comes from the integrity of its players and teams.”
The game saw more than 500,000 concurrent viewers during last year’s DreamHack Winter 2014 tournament. However, the reputation of the game has been hurt by accusations of match-fixing and gambling at the highest level of professional play, prompting Valve to make a statement.
It remains to be seen whether the players involved will heed Valve’s advice or simply learn to cover it up better.
