Two charged without detention over OGN Overwatch match fixing

Two individuals have been charged by South Korean authorities accused of match fixing in the wildcard qualifier finals for OGN’s Overwatch APEX Challengers Season 3.

This comes fron an Inven report translated by ESPN Esports, who reported that the two have been charged without detention. Jin Seok-hoon and Baek Min-Jeh, are the manager and coach of Overwatch team Luminous Solar, and the pair were banned for life from all of OGN’s events after an internal investigation by the company last February. Luminous Solar are also banned, meaning that if the team wish to compete at future OGN events, they’ll have to compete under a new name.

According to the investigation, the pair attempted to persuade rival team UnLimited to throw the game, promising them a sponsorship deal if they threw a match which would have qualified Luminous Solar for the second division of APEX’s tournament.

Luminous Solar went on to win that game, but due to the discovery of the match fixing they were disqualified from the tournament.

The investigation turned up an unrelated case of Seok-hoon and Min-jeh presenting a falsified medical certificate to allow them to bring in a last-minute substitute for the team.

As part of the same event, UnLimited player Choi Yoon-soo was also banned from OGN events for a season for his involvement in the match fixing discussions.

Match fixing has always been a problem for esports in Korea, although many fans have expressed concerns about the practice in Overwatch’s nascent pro scene.