Blizzard statement and ruling on WCS win-trading
DnS, MarineLorD, MajOr Win-trading
During the final hours of the ladder portion of the WCS Challenger – Europe, DnS played three ladder matches with a Terran, barcode-named player. DnS won two out of the three matches. Upon examining these matches and accounts in question, it was found that two players in the top 25 rankings had access to the barcoded Terran account: MajOr and MarineLorD. These matches were win-trades played to increase DnS’s rating without sacrificing either MajOr or MarineLorD’s ladder rank. In addition, the match DnS lost to the Terran barcode-named account appears to be a deliberate attempt to cover their tracks.
Ruling
DnS, MarineLorD, and MajOr are in violation of Section 6.2.a of the 2016 WCS Rules, and additional violations of Section 1.A.iv of the StarCraft II End User License Agreement occurred as well.
All accounts involved with these instances of win-trading will be closed.
DnS, MarineLorD, and MajOr will be suspended from Blizzard-sponsored events occurring on-or-before June 30 (players will be allowed to compete in qualifiers or Challengers for events that occur after June 30).
The 2016 WCS points already accrued by DnS, MarineLorD, and MajOr will be removed from their records. They will be able to accrue WCS points again once their suspension has been lifted. The voided points will still be used for seeding purposes, but not for invites to future events.
MarineLorD is retroactively disqualified from the French National qualifier of DreamHack ZOWIE Open: Tours, and the spot will be offered to the next-highest placing player.
Several unnamed players will be warned for their activity on ladder, and Blizzard and tournament administrators will examine their records closely during future ladder competitions.