AceeZ Banned for Three Games for Match-Fixing, korey Warned

SiegeGG's sixth-best player of Year 4 of Maurice "AceeZ" Erkelenz has been banned from competing in the European League (EUL) for three games due to apparent match-fixing attempts after an internal Ubisoft investigation. The team has also been fined US$5,000 by way of prize money.

According to Ubisoft, "evidence gathered shows that AceeZ provided, without reserve, insider information by stating that Rogue would lose [the Pro League Season 11 match against Team Empire on the 13th of April 2020]" -- a game that Team Empire did win by a 7-5 margin.

Also warned was Lukas "korey" Zwingmann, after the two were "asked for insider information in the context of a clear and conspicuous goal of betting on an upcoming match in which both players would have to partake".

AceeZ had attempted to justify his behaviour by claiming that his private messages were not serious, a similar line of defense to the six-month banned Benedikt "Shermi" Rostok. However, Ubisoft dismissed that claim after not seeing "any element that would indicate that AceeZ’s message was not meant to be serious".

Furthermore, since the reply to AceeZ's message indicated that the information would be acted upon, Ubisoft deemed that the German had engaged in insider information sharing, especially since he knew a financial wager existed on the match.

Similarly, korey had also been asked by an individual for insider information regarding the outcome of the same match. In response, korey had stated that he expected Team Empire to win "in his opinion". This led to the unknown individual "most likely" relying on this information to bet against Rogue, with the implication that Rogue would go on to lose -- as they did.

However, possibly due to korey explicitly qualifying his response as an opinion and/or the eventual performance of both players, he was simply warned for the same reasons that AceeZ was banned for three EUL matches.

AceeZ previously played on the OrgLess roster during Pro League Season 8, DreamHack Valencia 2018, and the Paris Major where he finished as the top-rated player at the latter event. Following this, he moved to Millenium in September 2018 where he has remained for the last two years.

In this time he has attended both Six Invitationals, both Pro League Finals, and both the Raliegh Major and European Regional Major but was first rounded in all but one of these events as the team was consistently unable to perform when it mattered most.

Across this time the lineup also saw a complete overhaul with AceeZ sitting as the longest remaining player as it changed from a purely French lineup to a German majority one.

Due to this ban the Hungarian player of Adam "Hxsti" Imre Hostisoczki has played for Rogue during both the GSA League Finals -- where Rogue finished as runners-up to G2 -- and in the opening two games of Stage 2 of the EU League. In the first, he finished as the third-best player on his team, despite a 7-2 loss against Team Empire.

Hxsti will thus also play in the next three games, until the October 5th game versus G2 Esports.

Prior to this in August saw another ban for attempted match-fixing as the then-Challenger League player of Shermi from DIVIZON was suspended for six months following claims by him that he messaged someone to throw their game as a joke which was then clamped down on by Ubisoft as a serious attempt to circumvent the rules.  

Besides Shermi the only other players to be banned by Ubisoft this year were seven Mexican players following collusion, account sharing, and identity theft accusations surrounding the MeT Academy team ahead of the Series B tournament in the region. Prior to this, the only public case of possible match-fixing came in the LATAM region between FaZe Clan and Black Dragons however, no Ubisoft action resulted from it. Further details surrounding this story can be found here.