Self fulfilling prophecy sees ‘Ban’ suspended from Valorant esports

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 18/12/2025

The ironically-named Seungmin ‘Ban’ Oh has been suspended from competing in sanctioned Valorant esports events for twelve months.

A Riot Games investigation into match fixing found the former Global Esports player guilty.

Meanwhile, a previous Riot investigation found no evidence of Valorant match mixing in North America despite substantial allegations.

The match-fixing in question was related to a VCT Pacific match between Global Esports and Team Secret played on July 19th, 2025.

The investigation found Ban had engaged with individuals and entertained proposals for match manipulation, which included financial terms, in private messages.

Ban claims he didn’t intentionally underperform and fix the outcome of the match, and never had any intention to do so.

While the investigation found insufficient proof that Ban had intentionally misplayed, participation in match-fixing discussions was still enough to warrant a suspension.

Riot’s ruling read: “Engaging with individuals who propose match manipulation and agreeing to their terms to fix a match is in itself a violation, whether or not the manipulation is ultimately carried out.”

On August 27th, an online post containing unverified screenshots which appeared to show these private messages discussing match-fixing within VCT Pacific.

Riot and integrity partner SportRadar didn’t find evidence to verify whether these screenshots were real or not.

However, document reviews and witness testimonies gave Riot enough evidence to indicate that Ban had engaged in match-fixing activities.

In determining the 12-month sentence, Riot claims to have considered various mitigating factors, including the fact that Ban self-reported the misconduct before disciplinary proceedings began.

As well as serve the 12-month sentence, Ban will have to complete educational training on integrity and ethics within sports and esports before he can return to competing.

Global Esports respond to Ban’s Valorant suspension

Global Esports, the last VCT Pacific team that Ban played for, released a statement following the ruling by Riot Games.

Ban parted ways with the organisation back in November, with this investigation likely influencing the decision.

Global Esports’ statement condoned Ban’s actions:

“Over the past few months, Global Esports maintained radio silence while an investigation was conducted by Riot Games involving a former player during his time with the organisation. That investigation has now concluded.

“Riot Games has determined that the former player, Ban, breached competitive integrity rules related to match fixing activities and has been issued a ruling in accordance. Ban has not been part of the Global Esports roster for some time now.

“As an organisation, we do not stand for or condone any such behaviour. We don’t want to, and neither can we, get into any further details about the incident or the matter at hand.

“Our focus now remains on the upcoming 2026 season.”

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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