ATOX disqualified from BLAST Lisbon and PGL Bucharest qualifier over "provisional suspension from ESIC"

6-3-2025 23:16

The announcements come amid rumors that a prominent team was facing an ESIC investigation over suspected match-fixing.

Update 11:15 : PGL remove ATOX from Bucharest qualifier

ATOX have also been prohibited from participating in PGL events due to the ESIC suspension.

This includes the ongoing MESA Asian Masters taking place in Mongolia, which serves as a closed qualifier for PGL Bucharest.

ATOX's participation at BLAST Open Lisbon has been withdrawn due to the team currently being "subject to a provisional suspension from all ESIC member events," the tournament organizer has announced.

The Mongolian side has been replaced at the tournament by The Huns, who finished runners-up at the qualifying BLAST Rising Asia tournament, which took place in mid-February.

As a result of the replacement and The Huns now being the last-seeded team instead of ATOX as the original 14th seed, the matchups have been redone. The Huns are set on a collision course with first-seeded Spirit in Group A in the opening match of the tournament on March 19.

Date	Matches
BLAST Open Lisbon 2025
19/03/2025	Spirit 12:00 The Huns	Match

No further information has come out about ATOX's suspension and ESIC has yet to formally announce any such action.

The announcement comes amid rumors that a prominent team was facing an ESIC investigation. Chinese commentator Yunqing "⁠Searph⁠" Hu said in a social media post on February 26 that "a team ranked within the top 30 in VRS is under investigation by ESIC for suspected match-fixing in a match in EPL 2024."

"ESIC internally stated that the investigation may last for several weeks, and the organizer of the next competition for this team said that they have learned about the ongoing investigation and are ready to prepare a plan for the team to be banned at any time," he said.

ATOX took part in ESL Pro League Season 20 in September last year, finishing the event in 21st-28th place following one win in four matches.

Unlucky

2025-03-06 19:13

2 replies

esic coming out swinging, nice to see

2025-03-06 19:35

1 reply

OMG THEY DID SOMETHING AFTER THEY GOT THE 1409 TERMOPILE MVP

2025-03-06 20:26

WHAT

Actually the worst (unless true)

2025-03-07 08:24

hahaha mongolian matchfixers

Unlucky for Spirit, the Huns will destroy them!

101

4 replies

Unfortunately Huns is without their best player "The Chengiz Khan" otherwise they could have won the tournament let alone defeating Spirit.

2025-03-07 05:58

3 replies

Chinggis not Chengiz.

2025-03-07 11:16

Depends where you're from.

2025-03-07 17:31

nvm my bad just checked it's either what you spelled or Genghis, it doesn't matter though because you and others got my point...

2025-03-07 17:45

annihilation punching the air rn

he doesnt even play for atox anymore

2025-03-06 21:26

more like annihilation laughing at them

2025-03-07 09:55

annihilation left because the 3 of the 4 players except him wanted to the matchfix and on that very map he knew those 3 would fix the match so he didnt give 0 fuck and used ssg only on dust 2 mid doors and quit after first map

2025-03-13 04:32

How does this impact potential major invites? Knew Atox was on the rise in Asia rankings.

2025-03-06 19:14

12 replies

TyLoo already gained points to take over their spot.

2025-03-06 19:17

8 replies

they will gain the points after epl ends (nvm i thought it was like esl challenger that you dont get the points even after group stage)

2025-03-06 19:36

7 replies

They gained some points from the first stage already, but not enough to place them higher than ATOX yet.

2025-03-06 19:40

6 replies

they have more than the huns tho

2025-03-06 19:43

5 replies

Correct and that will almost certainly remain the case, because Tyloo will get even more points once their prize money (and the VRS points that brings) is collected at EPL. What really matters for them right now, is if they can get enough points to beat FlyQuest out to give China the extra Major spot instead of Oceania.

2025-03-06 19:54

they already did, the points from last year's ECL Atlanta are about to expire.

2025-03-06 20:04

The points will decrease in value, but they are still there for another month aren't they?

2025-03-06 20:10

yes, they'll be completely gone next month

2025-03-06 21:44

Alright, I'm looking at the dates a little closer now, and now I realize that the major invite date not being until April 7th means those matches should fall before the cutoff. Thanks!

2025-03-06 23:21

If they are banned by Valve before the MRQ starts then that opens a spot up for a different Mongolian team to attend instead. There was a slight chance that ATOX could have done well enough to leapfrog FlyQuest in the Asia VRS rankings, giving Mongolia the second spot instead of Oceania, but now only Tyloo will have that chance at EPL.

2025-03-06 19:45

will they ban the whole team or only 1 or 2 players tho?

2025-03-06 21:45

That's a good question. The assumption seems to be the whole team, but I don't think anyone knows for sure.

2025-03-06 23:20

wth

10 replies

matchfixinf in t3 is one thing but in epl?

9 replies

they didn't do it in EPL, duh

"a team ranked within the top 30 in VRS is under investigation by ESIC for suspected match-fixing in a match in EPL 2024."

Were ATOX top 30 when that statement was made?

2025-03-06 20:17

atox was #97 on hltv at epl20 and even lower down on vrs

2025-03-06 21:43

Prob meant vrs ranked at current time

2025-03-06 22:53

We're they *ever* top 30?

2025-03-07 00:18

They were 26th in the February Invitation rankings hltv.org/valve-ranking/teams/2025/februa..

2025-03-07 00:30

I think there play in this event ‘’1xBet MESA Asia Series 2024 Finals ‘’,they matchfix and rare atom also did it.

2025-03-06 20:07

makes sense, you know you won't get far and betting limits on an epl match is so much higher even when t4 team plays in it

2025-03-06 20:12

I mean how could they fix against Furia, Vitality or Falcons wtf ?? More like they fixed in ECL Asia

24 replies

My same thoughts exactly. Hard to fix in EPL when you're the most underdog of underdogs.

2025-03-06 19:21

If they fixed the Inferno against Vitality. The other team should be under investigation too then.

2025-03-06 19:22

Or ENCE. I think they won against ENCE. Other teams they faced, they would lose anyway.

2025-03-06 19:24

Exactly.

Has to be ENCE. Remember that ENCE was a dead roster at that EPL so making some cash knowing you will be benched surely sounded good.

2025-03-06 19:32

#187

2025-03-07 10:51

I mean. Only getting 9 rounds vs furia is an understanable reason for ESIC to investigate.

2025-03-06 19:23

Makes no sense, however it reminds me of how back when joel was under investigation by ESIC they also named tournaments where his team only lost to heavy favorites and then later it turns out he placed bets on his team winning, so not match-fixing. Maybe that's the case again

2025-03-06 19:27

This actually makes sense. They might have betted on the games they were playing. Whether losing or winning doesn't matter. I think you're not allowed to bet on your games.

pros are not allowed to bet at all, not only in their games

2025-03-06 21:47

the same is extended to anyone who has connections in the pro scene

2025-03-07 00:23

exactly

2025-03-07 01:03

You forgot ATOX 2-0 ENCE, maybe they fixed that match

Then ENCE should be under investigation too.

2025-03-06 19:44

Perhaps we should wait an ESIC announcement, but 13-6 on Nuke and 13-3 on Ancient agaisnt ENCE are too weird.

2025-03-06 19:52

did you consider that the ban could be for something they did at a smaller event?

2025-03-06 19:55

The rumor that is even quoted in the end of that article says "...under investigation by ESIC for suspected match-fixing in a match in EPL 2024"

2025-03-06 20:06

#86

2025-03-06 20:18

They were before Bluejays rise, yes. Right at 30

2025-03-06 20:20

I mean, they lost to Falcons. That's definitely investigation worthy

2025-03-06 20:02

LOL

2025-03-07 00:55

there are several different types of bets, it's not only about who's winning the whole series

2025-03-06 21:59

Bro there is a term called "spot-fixing", it has existed in traditional sports for ages, basically betting on a specific market that doesn't rely on the overall result of the match, if there ever was fixing in Tier 1 this would 100% be the way to do it. Example: Betting on the opponent to win both pistols, over/under kills on a specific player, over/under headshots, over/under bombs planted/defused etc. These are just a few random betting markets from the top of my head, so many such markets exist it's crazy. If you spread these bets across multiple crypto bookies it's hard to get caught.

2025-03-07 10:54

They fixed over/under or handicap bets probably.

2025-03-07 10:53

bettors were right, 322 everywhere

2025-03-06 19:18

china? NA? CIS? mongolia! also banning a guy who retired lol

2025-03-06 19:19

if this were true, its valve+ESIC to blame for not running enough events in the region, can't be expecting them to "go pro" while starving. and if not true, how did they make it to international events by throwing. either way, its entirely valve+ESIC fault. they could also turn a blind eye and let asian cs evolve than destroy more careers that does no good for the scene

I feel like even the Mongolz could be matchfixing or cheating in the past, it's impossible to survive by playing cs in Asia and it's still is

Most stupid take I have ever read jesus just delete this pls.

2025-03-06 19:33

A gut-punch to the Mongolian T2 CS scene and its credibility, even with The Huns and Chinggis Warriors being competitive in the Asian CS competitions.

Mongolian CS downfall finnaly happening🙏

what did mongolia do to you

2025-03-07 03:36

Nothing.I apologize,I said too much.I just don't think Mongolz are that good as Valve ranking says

2025-03-07 16:14

Wait 2 months and it will turn out that its something that happened 2 years ago and they fuck over the current guys that didnt do shit as always, ESIC are clowns. Zero Tenacity and 500 still play freely btw

2025-03-06 19:26

and GTZ Partizan ahhahha

what is esic?

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) is committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and fair play in the esports industry.

2025-03-07 23:45

Dude what I liked ATOX

2025-03-06 19:37

Cinema 322 caught

Ridiculous how there's not one PT team in this event lmao

2025-03-06 19:39

get better?

2025-03-06 21:53

The Huns, Imperial and M80 are here so

2025-03-07 00:56

hltv.org/matches/2379069/saw-vs-500-res-..

2025-03-07 01:05

guilty until proven innocent classic esic always punishing smaller scenes but always afraid to actually do anything impactful on the scene (see zonic not being banned)

esic will fold once the monglian horde (lawyers) arrive

Still working on that NA match fixing report huh guys

Meanwhile 500 and ZT freely farming banks from fixed CCT matches lol.

Interesting. The rumor was that the team in question was in top 30 VRS currently when it surfaced (not now, but was like 3-4 days ago, before Bluejays flying up, so fair, checks out) and was potentially fixing in EPL last year. That would make EPL 20, as Atox did not play EPL 19, and against Vitality, Falcons or Furia. Against Vitality they actually got one 13-11 map, so that's unlikely the game, considering it was LAN. If it is true, I would like for it to be against Falcons as it was their only win in the tournament, simply for the funny of previous Falcons' roster being that bad that they can't in over asian qualified team without said team fixing.

2025-03-06 19:58

Nvm, whatever was there was wrong for not remembering the tweet correctly

you mean Ence not Falcons hltv.org/stats/teams/matches/12312/atox?..

2025-03-07 01:30

No, I meant it's the only game at that EPL Falcons won

2025-03-07 07:19

Are you fucking serious Fuck you ESIC, is it guilty until proven innocent now or what?

I mean, it is normal to lock people up, forbidding then certain actions or take some kind of guarantee they won't escape if they are suspect under investigation. You don't let suspects go around freely

That's just not true, though? You don't lock people up without any proof or explanation, that's ridiculous. All they're doing right now is destroying ATOX's chances to get Mongolia another Major spot for no reason...

2025-03-06 20:22

It's usually different facilities from a prison and I sadly don't know how they are called in english, but that measure does exist. Found it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-trial_detentio..

2025-03-06 20:24

Pre-trial detention is only ever used in extreme cases where there's a serious risk of someone fleeing or interfering with the investigation. Unlike regular legal pre-trial detention that has some rules and checks in place, this is just a vague call from ESIC with no one to hold them accountable. If they make a mistake, that's it, ATOX loses their only chance to compete on the international stage and no one is going to give that back.

2025-03-06 20:38

> only chance to compete on the international stage and no one is going to give that back For like 3 months at most. If they are clean - they will qualify somewhere again, they are good enough. And the org survived fine enough without sticker money so far, so I don't see them going bankrupt or anything like that until the next major.

2025-03-06 20:44

It destroys their chance to overtake FlyQuest and getting their region another Major slot. That feels like a pretty big deal. If they're clean they'll eventually qualify somewhere again ofcourse, but that doesn't make this any less of a joke.

2025-03-06 20:46

Also, matchfixing in a competition is an extreme case to warrant measures, imo. The only offence that is more serious is cheating

2025-03-06 20:48

This also makes me wonder about Annihilation's benching, considering he supposedly has issues with dobu (I think?). I may be misremembering, but it's interesting nonetheless.

2025-03-06 19:56

There were mongolians posting an explanation about annihilation benching. On lan BO3 in the middle of first map yami decided that he wants to awp instead of annihilation, so he didnt drop him awp and played it himself. Annihilation just went home after the first map. After that he immediately got benched.

2025-03-06 21:08

Not only that he didn't use awp for the entire match( scouts)

2025-03-06 21:40

>yami decided that he wants to awp instead of annihilation, so he didnt drop him awp and played it himself. Annihilation just went home after the first map. LMAO WHAT professional btw

2025-03-06 21:42

Leaving was absolutely the right thing to do. You cant just give up awping in the middle of a bo3 lan just because some guy from your team has a huge ego. Everyone would quit if they got treated like this XD

i would maybe agree if this was whole team treating him like this but getting this mad over behaviour of one person on first map instead of finishing and then talking through is weird

Brother a guy literally steals your role in the middle of a pro match, there is no talking through such behavior. Its not faceit where 5 people call theyre playing window on mirage, it is a team that plays fulltime.

2025-03-06 21:52

annihilation also complained about the team's work ethic and that he was basically the only one showing up to practice and stuff

2025-03-06 22:38

well if this is true then this becomes way more understandable

I knew it was something kind of wild, but I couldn't remember the whole story. Thanks for reminding me! But, I think my comment stands. It sounds like there was more to the team issues than just that one-off moment.

2025-03-06 23:15

Unexpected for me

2025-03-06 19:57

atox, if ur reading, and u really did throw games, NEVER admit to wrongdoing. remember when swag did it? totally ruined his career. for apologizing and admitting, they received 10 years compared to recent ones who arent even as apologetic.

meanwhile smaller events are forced to invite cheaters and matchfixers

2025-03-06 20:15

Why haven't 500 GTZ Partizan Zero Tenacity been investigated yet? Especially GTZ, matchfix almost every day....

2025-03-06 20:19

They forgot to pay their match-fixing fee to esic like the EU and NA teams do

2025-03-06 20:21

Na teams can afford that?

2025-03-06 23:02

Cool. Does Valve allow ESIC to ban teams under 'provisional suspensions'? I thought the point with the GRID stuff is that they didnt release the data/reason why teams were blacklisted. I guess ESIC has far more credibility but the info isnt out in the public yet.

GRID and CCT didn't even release the "Those teams in our database of sus" and didn't notify the teams themselves, just skipped without explanation. This is not exactly completely open, but we do know that the reason is ESIC investigation from the TO, and that CCT and Yalla didn't say for their cases. And that seems to be enough, at least so far.

2025-03-06 23:40

ESIC is trash and irrelevant probably that ATOX didn't bribe ESIC

2025-03-06 20:33

classic esic xd ban random mongolians but 500 zero tenacity nexus and much more fixing and radaring teams from cct and similiar rating tournaments still playing (and with valve ratings get invites to big events)

2025-03-06 20:35

I think Atox forgot to bribe Esic or maybe they declined ggbet sponsorship.

2025-03-06 20:47

Not worthy it to match fix.

2025-03-06 21:21

They were the biggest onliners for a reason.

2025-03-06 21:41

Remember the GRID stuff where (shadow)banning teams from competing went without definite proof went against Valve's rulebook? shouldn't BLAST make said proof public to justify said ban to comply with the rulebook?

2025-03-06 22:17

You see, CCT didn't publish shit themselves. Not even "these teams are in GRID's database of possible matchfixers" because GRID were afraid of getting sued or whatever. Blast has published "they are under ESIC investigation". And that's all the TOs has to do according to rules (well, outside of having that as a reason for disqualifying in their rulebooks). ESIC does not have to publish anything (I guess other than notify Valve and Valve deeming them trustworthy). And unlike CCT situation, Atox surely were notified by ESIC and not shadowbanned without notifying even the teams themselves.

2025-03-06 23:36

What hapened with fucking esic. Who Is next me? I dont understad

LUL this trash & useless org still alive, what a joke

2025-03-06 23:49

rip mongolia scene its over

2025-03-07 00:02

ESIC doing something against Matchfixing ?????? Since when ?

2025-03-07 00:14

hltv.org/matches/2380251/atox-vs-hotu-me.. Imagine FFing to HOTU of all teams for fixing 🤣

2025-03-07 00:17

Yeah ATOX is fried, first the annihilation crashout now this idk how they come back

2025-03-07 00:29

they don't wanna touch tier1 teams, otherwise the game is dead coz bettors will leave this game and there will be 5k viewers

2025-03-07 00:39

goddamn m80 are going to play furia again lmao tbh they got a slightly better chance than they had before to not end up in last place

2025-03-07 01:14

haha bro that loss to furia.. m80 have some mental problems, they have really good situations which they choke, daps said it best

2025-03-07 03:08

What good news

2025-03-07 01:15

rip bozos

2025-03-07 01:26

classic asia team xdxd

2025-03-07 01:27

Ok top 45 teams, go

2025-03-07 01:28

Wtf is this

2025-03-07 01:31

i have inside information about anhil the reason why he left atox was he was forced to throw matches but refused to do that and trolled his last game and quit

2025-03-07 02:10

it sounds reasonable

2025-03-07 03:41

Retribution is inevitable; it’s just a matter of time.

2025-03-07 02:54

haha well thats fair, I think I saw a few clips on hltv forum

2025-03-07 03:07

So that means even if RA is eliminated from the PGL Bucharest qualifier, ATOX still cannot earn enough points to surpass FlyQuest. It might not be the most ideal scenario, but from the perspective of CNCS, it's undeniably a positive outcome.

2025-03-07 03:50

wow

2025-03-07 05:40

can u guys please check faze also? i think karrigan's been throwing for a while now.

2025-03-07 07:15

please also check liquid ultimate not shooting 3 ppl. since liquid cant win anything, they resorted to throwing.

32232223222322

2025-03-07 08:09

wow that is a huge blow to mongolian cs, pretty good for CN CS though.

2025-03-07 09:12

every other player besides mongolz from mongolia is tier999 so its not really a big deal

2025-03-07 09:17

Respect annihilation

2025-03-07 10:21

Mongolia has so many cracked players and good teams. We have a really active scene thats steady evolving. You seem to confuse Mongolia with Austria. Austria has no scene at all. No good players, they are literally trash, nobody knows Austrian players. The only person people might know is kakafu and he is a coach and not even coaching an Austrian team.

2025-03-07 11:27

There is SENSEY! Oh wait, he’s turkish 😂🤣😂🤣

2025-03-07 16:30

I mean he's born and raised in Austria, most likely has an austrian passport, but still. Only one player and he didnt even achieve shit. He had a short stint with BIG, where he couldve made a name for himself but he sucked

2025-03-07 19:52

They should ban for long duration for team and for everysingle player also ban their coach aswell.

2025-03-07 09:50

damn esic is actually cooking

2025-03-07 10:11

justiceforATOX

2025-03-07 10:12

They 100% spot-fixed on a very specific market that didn't rely whether they were to win or not. That would be the most realistic and reasonable way to fix in Tier 1, takes minimal effort and least suspicious.

Free ATOX! This team is led by two OGs. Theyd never allow matchfixing to happen especially now where their VRS standing was quite good. Justice for ATOX!

2025-03-07 11:21