VALORANT esports player jailed 4 months in Singapore for throwing match to win bets
He influenced his team to lose the match in a prominent tournament so that his friend could repay debts owed to him
SINGAPORE — A 25-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to four months' jail on Friday (26 May) for intentionally losing an esports match to profit from bets on an online gambling platform.
Malcolm Chung Wai Kiat, an active online gamer known as Germsg in-game and who was the captain of Resurgence (later rebranded to RSG), was also ordered to pay a penalty fee of $400, after he pleaded guilty to one count of corruptly receiving gratification under the Prevention of Corruption Act. A second similar charge was also taken into consideration.
Chung had participated in the VALORANT competition at the EPULZE Royal Southeast Asia Cup tournament in September 2020, which had a prize of US$25,000 at stake.
Threw match for personal gain
Chung played matches against three other teams from Singapore, South Korea, and Japan.
Before the final match against the Japanese team, his friend Ryan Tan Shern, 21 (known as Dreamycsgo in-game), suggested that they bet on Chung's team losing and intentionally throw the match.
Tan had owed Chung $400 but could not repay him, so he proposed this scheme as a solution. Chung accepted the suggestion, believing it was the only way to recover the money owed.
Tan arranged for his older brother to transfer $3,000 to Chung, who used it to place five bets on an illegal online gambling website.
Chung deliberately underperformed during the match and instructed his teammates to do the same, resulting in the team losing the match. .
Chung won a total of $7,019 from the bets. He kept $2,719 for himself, and distributing the rest among Tan's brother, Tan's friend and others, including his teammates.
Riot Games investigation
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor David Menon, the incident caused a lot of concern among the e-sports community.
CNA reported that as a result of the incident, RSG Resurgence faced a lot of negative attention that harmed its reputation.
Riot Games, the developer of VALORANT, also initiated an investigation into Chung and his team. This resulted in Chung and Tan being banned from participating in VALORANT tournaments for 36 months, while four other teammates received suspensions of between six months and one year.
Following the release of Riot's investigation, on June 24 2021, the chief operating officer of Resurgence lodged a police report regarding alleged match-fixing.
Menon stated that while there were no prior cases of esports match-fixing, he referenced football match-fixing cases to highlight the gravity of Chung's actions.
He added that Chung deprived other competitors of genuine sporting achievement and encouraged his teammates to fix the match.
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