Police have gotten involved in a case of cheating in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Police charged five Australian players over rigging matches by placing bets on matches that they lost on purpose.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has had a recent surge in popularity, and the potential prize money to be won in matches is high. The five offending players reportedly won as much as $30,000 in the rigged matches. They are all scheduled to appear in Victorian court on September 15th of this year.

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The charges were for “use of corrupt conduct information for betting purposes,” with one man being additionally charged with possession of cannabis. This is the first time charges like this have been made in Australia. The charges come from an investigation that led to six CS:GO players being arrested last year.

Cheating is rampant in CS:GO, but until now, no legal action has been taken against offenders. However, FACEIT seems to have a handle on banning cheaters as they are reported. On April 26, FACEIT banned hundreds of players, including popular YouTuber Mefju23. The arrests made in Australia came from an anonymous report from a betting agency, which led to the Victoria police starting an investigation.

Although playing a game with a cheater can be annoying or even ruin the game experience, it usually doesn’t have real-world consequences. $30,000 is a lot of money, and when that amount of cash is involved, it makes sense that the police would step in. As esports grow in popularity, the audience and the money grow with it, and cheating has bigger and more visible consequences. Traditional sports players can get fines or legal consequences from rigging games, so if esports is considered a “real” sport, it should follow the same rules.

Even if the police hadn’t gotten involved, getting banned for cheating or violating terms of service can still be serious. Last year, s1mple, a player many considered to be the best in the game, was banned from Twitch for using a slur against someone. Players as successful as s1mple can lose a lot from getting banned from a streaming service or the game itself. While most cheaters probably won’t have to face a judge, they will at least face the frustrations of fellow players who just want to enjoy the game.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

MORE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Nerfs SG553 in New Update

Source: Kotaku

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The first match-fixing case in Australian esports has led to some serious consequences. Five men between 20 and 27 years old are facing charges that carry maximum penalties of up to 10 years in jail. The charges stem from allegations of winning $30,000 by betting on fixed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches last March.

In August, the Victorian police issued a statement on the matter, noting that a betting agency had tipped off officers about players who were “arranging to throw” five matches during the Mountain Dew League in order to benefit from bets they’d placed. 

A 20-year-old from Mill Park in Melbourne has been charged with two counts of engaging in conduct that corrupts or would corrupt a betting outcome, along with two counts of using corrupt conduct information for betting purposes. He was also charged with the possession of cannabis. Two other 20-year-old players from the same area, along with a 20-year-old from South Morang, were charged with three counts of using corrupt conduct information for betting purposes. The fifth man is a 27-year-old from Sale, who was charged with a whopping five counts of using corrupt conduct information for betting purposes. 

All five men will face court in Melbourne and Sale in September. 

A sixth man was arrested in August 2019, but it’s unclear why they were not charged with anything at this time. No names were released. 

CSGO match fixing is a serious crime

According to the original reporting, all five of the players involved in the match fixing had gone to the same high school and university. They were all from “normal suburban Melbourne families” and had no prior wrongdoing on their records. 

“We’ve got young men, typically 19 or 20-year-olds, who have no history with police,” assistant commisioner Neil Paterson stated. “They’re getting involved in [corruption] offenses at quite a young age that have serious consequences for them.” 

For Paterson, the number of young men involved in esports gambling, and gambling in general, has been a problem. He noted that he feels nothing is really being done to crack down on this spreading problem with young men in the area.