Starcraft II WCS Winter Players Banned for Rigging Matches

The Starcraft II World Championship Series (WCS) is a very important event for Starcraft eSports. However, it seems like some players have decided to cheat their way to the top ranks. Cyan, JieShi, Route, and Nice were recently banned as a disciplinary action from Blizzard. The players won’t be able to participate on any Blizzard eSport event until May 31, 2019.

Starcraft II WCS Players Banned

Some professional Starcraft II players were found cheating and are banned until May

During the ladder race of WCS Winter—Americas; the player known as Route played several suspicious matches with cyan, JieShi, and Nice. Upon review of these matches and accounts in question, it was found that several of the matches were intentionally lost by Route to the other three players.

It was later found out that the four players were colluding to intentionally trade wins with the Route account. In fact, JieShi and Cyan both logged into Route’s account several times as part of this effort.

Of course, this is a clear violation of Starcraft II’s WCS guidelines. “The WCS operates via official rulesets, which were established to set expectations around the rules of tournament play and structure, player eligibility, points, prizes, sponsorships, and player conduct.” Said Blizzard in a blog post.

“All players accept these rules in order to participate in our tournaments and are expected to abide by them at all times.” As such, the players were banned from all Blizzard-related events until May 31, 2019.

After the disqualification, Max “Astrea” Angel, Maru “MaSa” Kim, and Erik “Erik” Braga Bermelho will qualify for WCS Winter instead. This changed was based on their performance during the ladder rankings.

Are you watching the WCS Ladder Race qualifiers? Were you a fan of any of the banned players? Do you like Starcraft II eSports? Let us know your thoughts at the VGR Forums and stay tuned for more news and updates on the eSports scene.