The case was exposed by an anonymous user but informed enough to cross-check all the information necessary to constitute an article, demonstrating a problem of esports integrity of the NAVI during the Intel Extreme Masters XVI - Katowice.
NAVI IN TURMOIL
The story is quite simple, an average user bet 20 dollars, for some reason, that a NAVI player would buy an M249 during the Intel Extreme Masters XVI - Katowice. His bet was quoted at 501 to 1, or 0.19% chance that this situation will happen, which remains high despite everything since the Natus Vincere have never bought this weapon until now, available only in counter- terrorist, and that we are currently playing a major tournament in the teams' season. Anyway, if the bettor's prediction came true he could pocket the trifle of 10,020 dollars. A nice sum of money for a relatively low bet and a story that could have ended there if behind the events had not been linked. Indeed first of all we had a streamer from the Russian-speaking region who announced that if this prediction came true he would get an M249, the NAVI logo and the entire squad tattooed. A message that met with some success, especially when it was relayed by another more famous streamer from the Russian zone Kostya "Leniniw" Sivko. Then others followed suit allowing this post to be highlighted by the Twitter algorithm during the competition.
All this took place on February 16 (the bet having been put online on the 15th), even before the start of the tournament for the NAVI who qualified directly for the group stage, while their first meeting was scheduled for the 18th. February vs. ENCE at 12:30 p.m. Small problem, the site which accepted this bet is also a sponsor of the Ukrainian organization since it is GG.BET, moreover the highlighting of the message by the commentators allowed the latter to be returned visible to the community and then the story took off. Following their 2-1 victory against ENCE (16-08 Mirage / 04-16 Nuke / 16-14 Overpass), Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and his teammates were scheduled to play the Brazilians from FURIA Esports the next day at 4:00 p.m. But it It was in this match won 2-0 (16-02 Mirage / 16-12 Nuke), on Mirage and as a counter-terrorist, that Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy bought an M249 which he threw on the ground. It was not a request from his comrades since no one will collect the weapon and it was also not a purchase error since the Russian player already had an AK-47 in his hands. He therefore voluntarily bought this weapon, and one can logically assume that it was because he was aware of the bet. purchase since the Russian player already had an AK-47 in his hands. He therefore voluntarily bought this weapon, and one can logically assume that it was because he was aware of the bet. purchase since the Russian player already had an AK-47 in his hands. He therefore voluntarily bought this weapon, and one can logically assume that it was because he was aware of the bet.
Moreover, the structure's communication cell took a screenshot of this moment to post it on its social networks, simply commenting: " Let's leave it here ". At that time the doubt on the knowledge of the bet by all or part of the staff and the players seems definitively lifted. Even if Perfecto or the club's communicators probably had no bad intentions, the accumulation of coincidences could logically be considered as a disguised (or not) publicity stunt by GG.BET, or at least a violation of the sporting integrity and a conflict of interest. In order to confirm that there is indeed a problem, in his post the user who brought this case to light takes the example of the " piegate by footballer Wayne Shaw on February 20, 2017. The latter, then goalkeeper for the Sutton United club, was playing an English FA Cup match against Arsenal and an 8 to 1 bet was in place for who would eat a pie during this match . But on the bench, and while he will admit to having been aware of the bet, Wayne Shaw ate one.
This led to an investigation and the player being fined £375 as well as his resignation and the end of his professional football career. The case of Perfecto and NAVI is therefore not insignificant since it breaks the separation that must exist between betting and competition. It is also for all these reasons that players and management are prohibited from betting. And even despite these precautions we see that there are always breaches of the rules (voluntary or not). Last summer the ESIC (Esports Integrity Commission) announced to us, for example, that 80% of matches were fixed in China and that they were unable to put an end to this phenomenon there, to see if an investigation will be opened at us following this story.
