Last week, we revealed that Reason Gaming faced a suspension and possible ban after allegations of match fixing. As of 15th September, ESL UK have lifted the provisional suspension of Reason Gaming, allowing both them and Radix Esports to attend the LAN final.
The progress of the investigation, which was “expedited” due to the fast approaching LAN finals, discovered no malicious intent from the players of Reason Gaming. After finding preliminary evidence, ESIC felt it was “justified” to suspend Reason from the remainder of the season, and so be it the finals. Since further investigation determined their loss wasn’t intentional, the suspension was lifted and investigation ended. CeX were also under investigation due to their loss against Radix, and after no evidence was found to suspend them the investigation has since been dropped.
All of this means that the table as of the final week of the season, is confirmed to be kept the same. This will see CeX, Reason Gaming, Team Endpoint and Radix Esports pick up the invites for the ESL Premiership Finals, with Method and fish123 once again missing out on competing.
The final standings of the online league of the ESL Premiership.
Esports Integrity Commissioner Ian Smith said, “ESIC would not usually comment on investigations, but, in this case, unfortunately, details were put into the public domain and, in the interests of natural justice and protecting the reputations of those involved, it is only right that we clarify what has happened. Preliminary evidence justified provisional suspension given the stage of the Premiership that had been reached and the time pressures involved. These pressures also prompted us to expedite the further investigation of the allegations, which we did as quickly as possible. The result of those further investigations is that we are satisfied that underperformance by the Reason Gaming team in their match against Radix was not deliberate as originally alleged. Consequently, we have lifted the suspension at the earliest opportunity.”
The ESL Premiership finals will be held at the 5,000 m² ESL Arena at EGX over the weekend of 23rd-24th September. The semi-finals are scheduled for 10am and 1:30pm on the Saturday with the finals set for a midday broadcast on the Sunday where the final two teams will compete for the lion’s share of the £10,500 prize pool.
