The Japanese head coach for CYCLOPS Athlete Gaming (CAG) has admitted to throwing a professional Rainbow Six Siege match for better tournament seeding.
Within the heat of APAC’s North Division qualifiers, players within the Rainbow Six Siege community have been scratching their heads upon witnessing CAG losing their final match 3-7. With wins over the best (Fnatic and Cloud9), how did they lose to some no-name team that didn’t even qualify?
By losing to QConfirm, CAG’s Hibiki Motoyama (XQQ) was attempting to game the tournament’s seeding system. This was to push Cloud9 further away in the finals, giving the controversial team a higher chance of making it to the end.
The team had smashed through the competition with a high chance of winning it all, so fans were devastated to see CAG breaking the rules so flagrantly. Losing purposely to obtain a lower seed is a listed infraction in the rule book where the prescribed punishment will be a $2,000-$5,000 fine and a 6-12 month suspension.
Match throwing in APAC confirmed by their head coach, just wanna point out the global rulebook minimum/maximum fines and suspensions also. pic.twitter.com/1IEiprSfZn
— Fresh (@FreshR6S) October 22, 2020
The world of online competitive gaming resembles real world sports when it comes to these scandals. Much like football stars, these e-sports coaches and players have weathered their fair share of misconduct.
From rigging the game through hacks to betting against your own team, the industry has seen it all. At the very least, XQQ has admitted to his mistake.
yeah i think this is last match for me
— XQQ🐱 CAG (@IAMXQ) October 22, 2020
Perhaps he’ll get bailed out, but don’t hold out too much hope. Other competitive circles such as League of Legends and Dota 2 have followed through with punishing teams for similar offences, so there’s no reason why Rainbow Six Siege wouldn’t be just as strict.
As of right now, all signs point to XQQ no longer leading CAG into the 2020 finals.
