Flash Gaming leaves CSGO, alleges corruption in China

Flash Gaming is getting out of the Counter-Strike business, and the reasons why speak to systems problems in the Chinese Counter-Strike scene.

Flash Gaming’s CEO, known by the handle “Enndy,” took to Weibo and made a series of allegations about corruption and a lack of competitive integrity in Chinese professional Counter-Strike. While there has not been an official English statement from the team as of this writing, a rough translation of the post has been making the rounds on Reddit.

Among the allegations made by Enndy are claims of match fixing, cheating, hardware sabotage, and players receiving threats during tournaments. Despite the number and seriousness of the claims, Enndy did not name any specific people, teams, or tournament organizers.

It’s worth noting that Flash was involved in a case of alleged hardware sabotage last year which saw the organization’s team forced out of the final round of regional a qualifier due to the alleged sabotage.

Though esports has grown and matured in past years, dirty dealings have always been an unfortunate part of the young industry. Multiple games have been rocked by match fixing scandals over the years, and it was only a few months ago when OpTic India was disqualified after a player was caught cheating during a live event.

Regardless, this marks the end of Flash Gaming’s efforts in Counter-Strike. The team announced on Weibo that it was releasing QiFang “Karsa” Su, YangYang “ayaya” Zheng, and Kunhua “LOVEYY” Bai. Its two remaining players, YuLun “Summer” Cai and YuanZhang “Attacker” Sheng, are currently on loan to Tyloo.