THE PAST COUPLE of days saw a plethora of reports of alleged match fixing in the MDL Philippines and there were even accusations directed at its pro-level counterpart.
This ultimately raises a lot of questions as to why pro players would get themselves involved in these incidents that could potentially kill their careers.
How match fixing works?
SPIN.ph has reached out to sources regarding match fixing in the Philippine esports scene, one of them even revealed that they investigated on numerous Dota 2 322 incidents.
For starters, 322 is a reference to Alexei “Solo” Berezin's bet against his own team RoX.KIS. During the StarLadder match between RoX.KIS and zRage, a lot of suspicion was made due to the former's horrendous outing.
Solo then admitted that his team intentionally threw that game in order for him to win $322. He was then temporarily banned by Valve for match fixing. Due to the nature of the incident, the term 322 became is associated to match fixing and fans would constantly spam it when they see something suspicious.
Now going back to PH esports, the source then explained in detail how match fixing works, which involves key parties.
"May financer, fixer, and players. Fixer is usually the friend of players then siya kakausap. Siya magsasabi anong gagawin like papatalo ba or ano score or even sino first 10 kills ganyan. Siya din magsasabi how much talent fee per player," started the source.
"Financer siyempre siya maglalabas ng pera pambayad sa talent fee."
Is money the root of evil?
Eventually the source revealed one of the key motivations. Looking back at the salaries of pro esports athletes especially during the early days, greed will slowly creep in.
The source mentioned that Php20,000 was the salary of Dota 2 players back then, making them a target for fixers. They even revealed that match fixing offers could start at around Php50,000.
But this could double and grow depending on the financer.
"Isang match fix mo they'll offer you six digits depende sa fixer and financer. Plus you can always bet on the outcome so dagdag pa yun sa secured bag."
Are the leagues a problem?
Switching from Dota to Mobile Legends, the recent alleged match fixing incidents that have been plaguing the MDL PH scene would raise some eyebrows.
Is the situation of the league a problem?
For context, when looking at the MDL prize pool, it amounts to USD20,000 (around Php1 million), contrast that of the MPL PH which boasts USD150,000 (around Php9 million).
When these concerns were raised by the press to Matthew Chan, MOONTON Games' Esports League Operations Lead, here's what he has to say.
"These development leagues are meant to harness their players, to keep them tough, to help them play. I don't think the low salary should be an excuse," he started.
Instead he focused on the need for education to prevent these unwanted incidents.
"But it's more of the education where we really need to create that program where we tell them how it will affect their career, just because you accept it this one time, it is going to hurt you for the rest of their lives."
And speaking about education, this was something that Philippine Esports Organization's Executive Director, Marlon Marcelo further discussed.
A call for education
During an interview with the press, Marcelo highlighted that PESO is currently in talks with MOONTON and the Games and Amusement Board to combat these incidents. He even explained that PESO is working on a protocol to help athletes deal with these offers.
"On our side PESO, we will be stepping in, and we have our own internal protocols on how to combat it, so we will be asking a representative from all the teams, hopefully managers, team owners, and captains, and we have to sit down and tell them how to combat this internally first."
"If an athlete is approach by someone, you should follow this protocol."
With these protocols, perhaps PESO and the other parties involved could determine who the primary culprits are.
"And the biggest thing is, we must be able to catch whoever these bad actors are, and punish them by the full extent of our laws. That's why it's a full cooperation with everyone."
This will definitely be a challenge for the parties involved as tracing down fixers is no easy task as they tend to remain anonymous.
In addition, tracking down a fixed game isn't something that can be easily done.
"There's never a way to say because players can have off days. You cannot say like when a player does a bad call, if that's the case then every game is going to be up for question. We'll take the stance that everyone is innocent until it's proven guilty," reiterated MOONTON's Matthew Chan.
He added: "But if there are certain anomalies that are really off, like chat. We're being proactive with the managers and players if they require help, they can talk to us."
However despite the lingering concerns, Marcelo is adamant to protect the scene especially since he has witnessed a lot of esports careers ruined due to these violations.
"We're even thinking of doing buy bust operations, just to make sure that you'll follow the protocol and we even want to reward someone that will turnover these kinds of bad actors. Ganoon kami kagigil para maprotektahan din kasi we always see the athletes na natatamaan ng punishment and those na nag-i-influence and nagpro-profit gets away."
"Currently me and Matt are coordinating with GAB for the full extent of what can be done through our laws."
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