11 Professional Starcraft Gamers Involved in Match-Fixing Scandal

16 people have been indicted with rigging games and placing illegal bets in the match-fixing scandal that has recently taken place in the Korean pro-gaming Starcraft community. While the South Korean law somewhat protects the identities of people involved in on-going legal investigations, the little information revealed allowed the fans to deduce that 11 pro-gamers and three brokers were involved. All of them will face further inquiry, but will not be arrested.

With the assistance of sAviOr, who is one of the best known Starcraft players in South Korea, the three brokers bribed the others with sums of money ranging from two to 6.5 million won (Korea's national currency), which is around 2,000 to around 6,000 dollars.

After getting the money, they were supposed to lose matches in which the brokers bet on their adversaries. If the money received by the pro-gamers might not seem extraordinary, this cannot be said about the three brokers. Around 140 million won, some 140.000 dollars, is the sum reported to have been earned by two of the brokers, while the other one got about 32 million won, somewhere around 32.000 United States dollars.

One of the players has issued a statement on a Korean popular social networking site called Cyworld. He maintains that he deeply regrets his actions, the disappointments he produced and that, to become a better person, he will be entering military service.

Starcraft is the most popular video game in South Korea, having become somewhat of a national sport there. Millions of Koreans watch televised live transmissions of Starcraft multiplayer matches, the professional players are local celebrities and they are highly competitive. This betting scandal has thrown a shadow of doubt over the competition and has left many players, as well as fans, baffled. The industry that formed around the Starcraft leagues has suffered a blow in reputation that will probably not go unnoticed by the sponsors that fund these events.