The player manager and coach of Luminous Solar have been booked without detention in South Korea by the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency Cyber Bureau after Luminous had attempted to qualify for the OGN Overwatch APEX Challenger Season 2 via match fixing, Inven reported on Sunday. The criminal charge specified in the article was interference with business; lifetime bans from OGN had been handed out last February.
OGN had released an announcement last February detailing the results of its internal investigation into the wildcard qualifier finals between Luminous Solar and UnLimited, which Luminous Solar had won.
In the report, OGN revealed that a large amount of circumstantial evidence pointed to Luminous Solar's player-manager Jin Seok-hoon and coach Baek Min-jeh offering sponsorship for UnLimited in return for forfeiting the match. It was also discovered that the two individuals had used a fraudulent doctor's certificate in order to field a last-minute substitute in place of one of Luminous Solar's players.
On the basis of such findings, OGN issued a lifetime ban from all OGN events against the Luminous Solar organization, as well as both Jin Seok-hoon and Baek Min-jeh. UnLimited player Choi Yoon-soo, who colluded with Jin and Baek, was also banned from participating in the next season of OGN Overwatch APEX Challenger.
Corruption has been a recurring problem in South Korean esports ever since a wide match-fixing ring in StarCraft: Brood War involving star players such as Ma "sAviOr" Jae-yoon was brought to light in 2010. Many fans are expressing surprise and concern at how quickly such an event occurred in Overwatch's still-budding scene.
