Leaked recording captures discussion of CSGO ESEA Premier match fixing
ESEAOn April 2, North American Counter-Strike news site Dust2.us published an audio recording that captures three ESEA Premier players engaged in discussion to fix the outcome of two matches. The recording has been released after it was publicly revealed by the Commissioner of the Esports Integrity Commission, Ian Smith, that the FBI were also conducting their own investigation into North American CS:GO match fixing.
The audio, recorded in October 2020, features three players from the organisation Rebirth, Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano, Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak, and Carson “nosraC” O’Reilly, openly discussing how to subvert the outcome of two of their matches in the ESEA Premier League.
The two matches discussed were against Incognito and Russian Canadians. The former was postponed two times before it was resolved and the latter resulted in a forfeit.
Sources over the course of Dexerto’s own investigation confirmed that these decisions surrounding these matches were taken after the players became aware of the possibility of the recording existing and wanted to ensure no-one was monitoring activity around those matches.
Update, April 3: ESEA has now announced a suspension for all players from Team Rebirth from “all competitions until the investigation is concluded.” The players suspended are:
- Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano
- Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak
- Carson “nosraC” O’Reilly
- Alex “vek” Voynov
- David “J0LZ” Jolin
Valve / ESICThe recording also incriminates two of the Russian Canadian players, Alex “vek” Voynov and David “J0LZ” Jolin, as having agreed to participate in the scheme.
On the recording, Tropiano states that Voynov, the team’s in-game leader, has agreed to use “on radar” to ensure the outcome of the match. “On radar” refers to a popular method match-fixers use of streaming their game via programs such as Discord to their opponents.
This enables teams to have an advantage if they wish to win or to make their losing appear more natural with calculated “misreads” obfuscating the rigged nature of the game. Tropiano states that in exchange for their cooperation he will share profits from a couple of Bitcoin betting sites.
Over the course of our own investigation, Dexerto interviewed Voynov about the allegations and he denied them categorically. He also released a vague Twitlonger in February where he called any suggestion he was involved as “conjecture.” An archive of that statement can be found here: https://archive.is/vr9Zu
Dexerto also interviewed Jolin and he denied having made any agreement with Tropiano.
HLTVThe full transcript of the recording is as follows:
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: No it’d be sus if you played Incognito like the full game, but if you joined at half, it’d look real. Or not even at half, in the middle of the game while it’s going, you just join, “my internet’s back”, we get shrek out of the server and it looks normal.
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: I’m not doing it bro.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: As long as shrek [Spenser “Shrek” Adams] plays like four or five rounds, it’s gonna look good.
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: and the fact that you didn’t even say anything about the Russian Canadians game, that’s even more fucked, but…
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: What?
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: What do you mean what? You didn’t say anything about it.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: What do you mean?
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak Okay, now you’re just acting dumb.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: No, I’m serious, what are you talking about?
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: What do you mean? I was just talking yesterday about winning a match so we can play Mythic in playoffs, you didn’t say anything. Now today you just come into the TeamSpeak and you’re like, “yeah, we’re just gonna lose the game.” Like what? *scoffs* what do you mean?
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: We’ve been planning to lose this game for the last five days; it makes the most sense out of every game in MDL. They need this win, we don’t need the win, and with their IGL on radar and you off the server, it looks guaranteed real.
Carson “nosraC” O’Reilly: I don’t know if vek will agree to radar.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: He does, he agrees to radar. On the condition that I’m letting him use two Bitcoin sites, and I’m going to share profit from those two sites. And J0LZ is okay with it too. And they’re not- I told them there’s no way you tell battery or Saturn, it needs to look like a legit tryhard game.
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: Alright, whatever. But I’m not setting up the Incognito game, I told you.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: I know, I don’t think you should, you should join in while shrek is playing, like three rounds in.
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: No *laughs*
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: No, the main thing is that if it shows six people on HLTV, it’ll look so good.
Kevin “4pack” Przypasniak: Well, you can set it up or something, I dunno.
Sebastian “retchy” Tropiano: I’m going to restart for [ESEA Pro] client, hold on.
The recording was sent to ESEA admins shortly after it was captured and it was then passed on to ESIC who already had an investigation underway.
This recording corroborated other evidence that had already been unearthed by ESIC’s investigation. Months later, and with other lines of inquiry now being pursued, the release of the recording has been cleared.
Dexerto will be bringing you a much more in-depth report into the match-fixing in the coming weeks.