Cloud9’s HObbit⁠ reportedly implicated in CS:GO match-fixing allegations

Former professional Kazakhstan CS:GO player Rustam “⁠5TRYK#R⁠” Alimkulov has come forward with allegations and pieces of evidence of match-fixing attempts from 2015. At that time, he played on a sponsorless team called PARTY, which featured Bektiyar “⁠fitch⁠” Bahytov and most notably current Cloud9 player Abay “⁠HObbit⁠” Khasenov, according to a report by Richard Lewis of Dexerto.

The alleged attempts of match-fixing happened at the StarLadder Regional Minor Championship CIS closed qualifier at the end of 2015. 5TRYK#R, ⁠HObbit, and the rest of the players allegedly tried to place bets on their own team losing pistol rounds, a practice known as spot-fixing. This type of match-fixing involves fixing an outcome of an aspect of the game that is not related to the game’s final result.

5TRYK#R alleged that PARTY were meant to lose the first pistol round of each of their three group stage matches on purpose and place bets on it. Each player would have won around $5,000 with the bets, according to 5TRYK#R, but some of them were canceled by the bookmaker due to suspicion.

“We did not earn anything from the match because Fitch told other people [outside the team] and so the bets were canceled,” 5TRYK#R told Lewis. “We also had our team and clan tag banned by the bookmaker.”

The 31-year-old has shown conversation logs involving HObbit and himself, a TeamSpeak recording from a talk with the team, screengrabs of the bookmaker’s website, and commentary over the pistol rounds in question. All pieces of evidence are attached to Dexerto’s report. The team fell apart after they did not make it into the CIS Minor and 5TRYK#R said he left the team