The Fog of Doubt – MonteCristo and Chobra on Korean Matchfixing Allegations

Cheon 'Promise' Min-ki's suicide attempt rocked the Korean esports world. His Facebook note levied accusations of manipulation and fraud against AHQ Korea's former coach – an unwelcomed ghost of the 2010 match-fixing scandal that rocked the Starcraft: Brood War scene. The clammy shadow cast by Promise and the ghost of Ma 'sAviOr' Jae Yoon's career is keenly felt by the Korean pro scene: even as the community has rallied to support Promise, currently hospitalized after his attempt, the professional games since have undergone harsher scrutiny – especially those with unexpected results.

Not long after, the OnGameNet Champions circuit was hit by a double-whammy. SKT T1 K dropped the ball against both sister team S as well as rivals KT Rolster Arrows – perhaps a moment of hubris, knocking low a team that secured an undefeated OGN season after winning the Season 3 World Championship. It seemed inevitable that they would be knocked out – after all, the only scenario in which they'd claw back into playoffs would be if sister team SKT T1 S lost their set against rookie newcomers Prime Optimus, then lost the tiebreaker against K.

To the disbelief of the audience at large, that was exactly what happened.

JC: Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first: in light of the recent controversy with AHQ Promise, is there any justification at all to be suspicious of Prime Optimus's victory?

"Of course if I were asked to bring hard proof to the room, I don't have any on my hands seeing as how I don't live in either team house," said caster and OGN Creative Director William 'Chobra' Cho. "I will say this though. For one, SKT T1 as an organization would never stand for this, and as a team sport with a micro-managed coaching staff, I don't really think it's realistic that this could even be set up without issue."

Commentator Christopher 'MonteCristo' Mykles was also dismissive of the accusations. "No, there's never been a KeSPA organization that has instigated match fixing. What happened with KeSPA players in Brood War was shady individuals contacting players directly."

JC: I've heard that while the teams might be well-off, the individual players aren't necessarily paid well. Especially in comparison to western organizations and streamers. Are there any systems in place to check temptation or prevent player collusion? Other than the known illegality of the practice.

"Match-fixing is obviously extremely serious in Korea and the KeSPA teams don't need money," said MonteCristo. "I'm not on a team, so I wouldn't know, but there is no reason for the players to throw collectively. And the KeSPA players in Brood War were paid $500k at the top end: since we are nearing the end of contracts for many players in League's first big year in Korea, they will be paid FAR better than Western players soon."

Currently, western LCS players are given a minimum of USD $12,500 per split, as per Riot Games' guidelines, on top of what they earn from sponsors and streaming. The specific numbers differ between teams and players; in the case of Dignitas and William 'Scarra' Li, he was expected to earn over $200,000 this year, though it is uncertain how his subsequent retirement from pro play will impact this prediction.

JC: How has the Korean community responded? If I recall correctly, sAviOr's actions from BW still cast a large shadow.

"It's had it's toll on the image of SKT, but I'd say it's mostly people wondering," admitted Chobra. "There's a very small group that is strongly pushing the idea it was set up, but many respond with reason."

He personally finds it infeasible. "For one, there's the fact that even with the loss S and K had to play each other in a tiebreaker re-match. So as administration, if you wanted to secure this, you'd have to instruct them to throw 3 games in a row. That's just outside of the scope of things. Some will go as far to reason that if you were that obsessed with setting this up, why not just have them split 1-1 with the Arrows?"

There's also the matter of the individuals involved, especially that of SKT's head coach, Kim 'KkOma' Jung-gyun. "kkOma is known to have pride about how he created the world's strongest team, T1 K. Coming into the Spring Season, it was known that he shifted focus to T1 S as the coaching staff believed K had stabilized at the top level," said Chobra. "Clearly, that backfired a bit, but KkOma decided to put faith in K and attempt to bring S to the same level. As someone who has witnessed how much the players relied on Kkoma not just for analysis but as an adult figure, I'm willing to believe the K members were hit in more ways than one when Kkoma shifted his focus a bit."

SKT S's capabilities are also in dispute. Prime Optimus had qualified for OGN in the first place by successfully taking on the likes of KT Arrows, while S has notably been reliant on an increasingly denied Ziggs pick. Did they truly have the advantage in such a match-up?

"I have been saying all season that I think SKT S was getting lucky and was not as good as their record appeared," said MonteCristo bluntly. "Prime Optimus showed up with a good strategy for picks/bans and the early game and SKT S failed to adapt. They seemed unprepared for the Jax pick, the four man push, the aggressive invades, and their inability to get Ziggs or Renekton."

JC: Then was Prime Optimus unfairly discounted?

"Absolutely," said Chobra. "Did T1 S look weaker than expectations during the match? Yes, but my god Optimus came prepared. I was casting the match, and I remember just being in awe of how well Optimus was executing their strategy. It was gutsy, and that type of strategy is a double-edged sword, but you could tell they put everything they had on the line there."

KeSPA will soon be releasing a press statement, as well as team communications during the SKT T1 S and K tiebreaker to disprove the allegations against the organization.

On April 16, SKT T1 K was knocked out of OGN Champions by Samsung Ozone: their worst performance since their rookie debut.