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Germany913 Posts
Update Update: Olimoley has released further explanation for her tweets.
Update: We now have statements by some tournament organizers: Pughy, Mal, SC2Improve and Conn.SI
The tournament organizer Olivia "Olimoley" Wong has posted several tweets stating that a big part of the korean SC2 scene is based on illegal betting. These tweets are another case of recently raised match-fixing allegations against the korean SC2 scene (see this thread).
According to her and other SC2 personalities, korean gamblers have sponsored small online tournaments with prizepools of $1-2k to be able to observe in-game, passing the stream delay. This allows them to bet "ahead" of other gamblers, thus getting a big advantage. This has been going on for at least 6 months.
This issue is also the reason for not allowing korean casters in the  OlimoLeague, a weekly korean cup organized by her and funded via Patreon.
Olimoley has also posted a list of tournaments named "Where did the money come from?" containing tournaments like MAL presents: Smallest Map Possible, the PughCraft Invitational 1 events and former progamer Dragon's Invitationals. These tournaments were allegedly sponsored by korean gamblers, but there is no accusation of match-fixing against anyone.
Apparently, Blizzard was informed about the issue and has been compiling evidences as it is a very serious matter.
There haven't been any statements by the accused organizers yet. more information by Olimoley should be forthcoming, According to mYi's manager PengWin, proof will be released soon. He also states that tournament organizers might not have known about that and that "the better was posing as a translator, an admin, or some other tournament official". TotalBiscuit has released a longer text trying to explain Olimoley's accusations, containing following extract:
a) Harassing players, admins and casters for information and in the worst cases, offering money to throw matches. We have no idea how many players if any have thrown maps in this way, but what we do know is that players are constantly approached to do it. MMA recently deleted his Facebook account because he kept getting messages from Korean betters. Progamers in Korea are being pestered by these people constantly.
Olimoley later stated that she has sent all proof to Richard Lewis, a well-known esports reporter, who will publish an article about the issue.
+ Show Spoiler [Sources] +
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Reminds me of everyone turning a blind eye to Azubu's money laundering.
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I can easily imagine she's right.
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This is sad but not surprising.
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United Kingdom31935 Posts
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East Gorteau22261 Posts
Until we have more than angry tweets with no details, this is mere speculation that does more harm than good.
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I'm just wondering which betting sites would offer lines for online tournaments like these. Or are the people funding these matches also running the betting sites?
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On February 09 2015 02:57 HolydaKing wrote:
I can easily imagine she's right.
Same there :/
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Canada16217 Posts
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United States1225 Posts
Thread reopened.
I do recall there being mentions of a sponsor who asked for a 1hour delay between game and stream. Destiny and BaseTrade both mentioned them, IIRC.
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Well the Uthermal tweets actually make this a lot more believable.
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If it is all illegal why Savior is not playing?
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On February 09 2015 03:22 peanuts wrote:
Thread reopened.
I do recall there being mentions of a sponsor who asked for a 1hour delay between game and stream. Destiny and BaseTrade both mentioned them, IIRC.
I'm not sure whether that's nefarious or responsible
Edit: i guess it's nefarious given what uThermal tweeted and what myiPengwin said on screddit
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So, why do bookmakers allow betting on minor tournaments? Even if the Koreans ones operate in illegal territory it is in their interest to prevent obvious match-fixing from happening (unless they instigate and benefit from it themselves).
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Very cool of uThermal to speak out. Let's tackle this cancer before it grows!
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China6331 Posts
Wishful thinking: everything is fine.
Possible reality: something bad is actually going on.
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Germany913 Posts
On February 09 2015 03:24 PinheadXXXXXX wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2015 03:22 peanuts wrote:
Thread reopened.
I do recall there being mentions of a sponsor who asked for a 1hour delay between game and stream. Destiny and BaseTrade both mentioned them, IIRC. I'm not sure whether that's nefarious or responsible
The gambler/sponsor wanted to have an advantage for his bets, so he requested in-game oberving (according to uThermal's tweet). A 1-hour delay would have helped him a lot, as he'd passed that.
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Canada16217 Posts
On February 09 2015 03:26 digmouse wrote:
Wishful thinking: everything is fine.
Possible reality: something bad is actually going on.
shits gonna get real pretty fast
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EPT
