ESEA suspends players named in leaked recording; OCG and ChocoCheck left in tatters before playoffs
Following yesterday's report by Dust2.us' own Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore, ESEA have suspended Sebastian "retchy" Tropiano, Kevin "4pack" Przypasniak, Carson "nosraC" O’Reilly, Alex "vek" Voynov, and David "J0LZ" Jolin until the ESIC matchfixing investigation has concluded. The tweet implies that further sanctions will be forthcoming after ESIC finishes working with stakeholders like the FBI, but in the meantime the five players are banned until May 3rd.
Since yesterday ChocoCheck have parted ways with retchy but not nosraC, while Dust2.us has confirmed that OCG have parted ways with both J0LZ and vek. Dust2.us has also learned that 4pack and nosraC have personally reached out to ESIC to discuss their involvement in the situation and the allegations brought against them.
It is worth noting that OCG's ESEA roster is comprised of the five starting players on the team and is completely devoid of substitute options. At this time ESEA have not clarified whether OCG will be replaced by another team or be permitted to add subs. The former seems more likely, so it seems reasonable that GGPR will be given the playoff berth outright to maintain the balance between the groups. Alternatively, ESEA could opt to pit them against the Group B fifth place team, Recon 5, to play a 9th place decider match and let the winner advance to face High Coast.
Conversely, the ChocoCheck roster has plenty of backups and shouldn't have any issues fielding a squad for their upcoming series with Extra Salt.
In light of the sanctions, ChocoCheck and OCG will have the following players available for ESEA Premier Season 36's postseason:
 ChocoCheck |
 OCG |
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ChocoCheck are scheduled to face Extra Salt in the opening round of the Season 36 playoffs, while OCG were set to square off with High Coast on April 13th at 8PM EDT, should their matches go ahead.
