Update 2:
ESL has released a statement stating that "there is no concrete evidence to confirm the claim that FaZe Clan or its members were involved in match-fixing and therefore no action will be taken against the team." Black Dragons, however, will be docked 20% of their Season 9 prize money following two major penalty points: one for "Internet issues that were caused by deliberate actions taken by members of the team" (referring to GdNN1 reportedly pulling the internet cable out during the game) and one for not showing up for a game on schedule.
It is therefore ruled that there is not enough information given to punish either team for match-fixing and GdNN1 will likely be un-suspended from the roster in time for their Pro League match on Wednesday.
Update 1:
Thyy has since released three screenshots of text conversations which seems to show an unidentified Black Dragons player discussing the match-fixing deal with Thyy:
These were released as part of a video explanation by Thyy of the events in which he also states that he has more proof he has shared with Ubisoft and that teams have been sharing scrim recordings between each other. A full English language translation of this five-minute-long video can be found here.
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What Happened
The story began in the early hours of the morning when former Black Dragons analyst Thiago "Thyy" Nicézio sent out a number of since-deleted Tweets. He claimed that the Black Dragons player of Juninho "GdNN1" Nunes had agreed with ex-teammate and current FaZe Clan player Ronaldo "ion" Osawa to have Black Dragons intentionally lose against FaZe Clan in the second half of Season 9 of the Pro League.
This match was the second of the season to end in a forfeit victory and had four Black Dragons players disconnect multiple times, leading to an final scoreline of a 7-0 in FaZe’s favour. This victory at the time was seen as crucial for FaZe Clan’s hopes of making it to the Pro League Finals in Milan, while Black Dragons sat both safe from demotion and too far from a LAN position, meaning the result effectively did not matter for them.
The standings in LATAM after the twelfth playday of Season 9
According to Thyy, this 'throw' on Black Dragons' part was to be repaid by FaZe Clan when the two teams met again on June 30th in the 2019 iteration of the Brasileirão (i.e. FaZe would intentionally lose their Brasileirão to Black Dragons). At that moment, FaZe Clan sat safely in a guaranteed LAN position while Black Dragons sat in fifth place -- just one point behind a LAN spot -- with two games remaining for each team.
The current Brasileirão 2019 League standings after 12 playdays (out of 14)
Proof?
Since the accusation, Thyy has since posted a number of voice recordings to back up his assertion. First, there was a recorded conversation between Thyy and GdNN1 which said:
A translation of the conversation via /u/lucas_praado on Reddit
Next came a conversation between himself and another Black Dragons player, Pedro "pzd" Dutra, in which it is implied that GdNN1 unplugged his internet cable right before he was about to pull off a clutch. The audio can be heard here with a translation below:
A translated transcript of the conversation via /u/arigabr
While there has been little response by many of the Black Dragons and FaZe Clan players so far, GdNN1 has released a Twitlonger in which he states the following:
FaZe Clan's manager, Leandro "tgk" Portela, also made four Tweets in which he states:
Finally, the two owners of Black Dragons, Nicolle "Cherrygums" Merhy and Denis "Pings" Vidigal, have released a total of seven screenshots of Whatsapp messages here and here from the day. In the screenshots, the players claim the internet was, in fact, down. Pings also claimed that these accusations have come due to Thyy wanting to get back at GdNN1 after an argument:
Repercussions
In the same thread as these claims, Thyy announced that he had stepped down from Black Dragons due to “personal issues that are related to things outside the game” but has forwarded all of the information he had onto Ubisoft.
Since then, Black Dragons has announced that they are “removing [GdNN1] from the roster till the facts are duly investigated and an official statement by the championship organisers is issued”, and are also fining the player.
Ubisoft Brazil is likely investigating these claims, however, have yet to release any kind of statement. The standard punishment if match-fixing is proven is a five-year ban from competitive play as well as a possible fine.
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Neither of these teams will be playing in any games until at least June 9th when the Brasileirão resumes. Until then, keep an eye out here at SiegeGG for any major updates on this story as it unfolds.
Thank you to @Thotomartins for many of the translations above.