Counter-Strike pro players Joshua “steel” Nissan and Braxton “brax” Pierce are now unbanned from competing at official Valve events, over 10 years after the two were involved in the notorious iBUYPOWER match fixing scandal. Whether it’s as players, coaches, or team analysts, the two can now participate at the Major.
After spending a decade banned from competing at the highest level of pro Counter-Strike, the two are free to pursue any opportunities.
Back in August 2014, members of the iBUYPOWER CS:GO roster purposefully lost a match against NetcodeGuides.com, after betting against themselves on CS skin gambling site CSGOLounge. Despite some evidence being present immediately after the match, the story wasn’t uncovered until journalist Richard Lewis published a report in January 2015. Within two weeks of the story’s publishing, Valve handed indefinite bans to all that participated, preventing them from competing at any Valve-affiliated events.
These bans, coupled with bans from other prominent tournament organizers such as ESL, effectively ended the careers of the players involved. Given that they were unable to participate at any major tournament, their team options were severely limited. In 2017, the players had their bans lifted from organizers like ESL and DreamHack, however the Valve bans had been made permanent in 2016. In 2020, both steel and brax transitioned to VALORANT, with steel finding some success with 100 Thieves.
Valve finally relented in 2023 though, making the bans no longer permanent and letting them expire after 10 years. That day where the bans expire has finally come, and the players can now compete at or participate in the Counter-Strike Majors. During the IEM Katowice broadcast, a small celebration was held for steel, who’s worked on stream as an analyst for a few years. During the segment, steel said that he learned “a very hard lesson for myself, as well as for everyone in the tier two scene.”
The bans and their length have been a major talking point in the community for a long time. In fact, it was Richard Lewis himself who petitioned months after his original report in 2015 that Valve not leave the bans indefinite. Over the years, some have argued the bans be lifted earlier as the players had been punished enough. Some though have argued that the severity of the punishment is crucial to deterring future instances of match-fixing.
Has 10 years been enough for these players? Join the discussion down below or in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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