Axie Infinity top player xSkyyy breaks silence about match fixing ban

Earlier this week, the Axie Infinity ecosystem was rocked when developer Sky Mavis issued bans to several of its top players for match fixing and win trading. The post-Season 20 ban wave affected a total of 7 top players from Axie Infinity with each of them having their assets, Axies and SLP, banned from use for a total of 999 days. The ban also prevents these players from participating in any professional Axie esport tournament. Implicated Axie Pro Player xSkyyy from Axie.GG guild took to Twitter to release a statement regarding the match fixing bans.

One of the players that got hit with the banhammer is Axie content creator xSkyyy, in a statement xSkyyy admits his mistake and reflects on the events that transpired over the course of the last few days. xSkyyy says that a Discord for top ranking players does exist—as initially stated by another implicated player Aremzy in his statement yesterday—and it has an “unspoken rule” of forcing the match to go into a ‘draw’ if the Discord members were to face each other in a queue.

This action is not allowed in the Axie Infinity terms of service which includes a rule prohibiting action “in any practice that aims to manipulate the outcome of any Axie match, whether in the arena or tournaments”.

This means that while the goal of having a pro or top player Discord seems noble, as xSkyyy describes it “top ranking players to bond while playing. Especially during those sleepless nights, a person to talk with while playing really made a refreshing impact onto our grind” engaging in actions such as purposely tying a match or even purposely losing just because you’re facing a fellow Discord member is definitely against the game’s competitive rules.

xSkyyy also admits that the mistake is his, and that he is happy to still have been part of the Axie Infinity community although he also says that he is not sure if he will be playing the game again, once the ban is lifted. 

As punishment for the match-fixing, in the top player Discord channel, banned players like xSkyyy will have their Axies banned from use for a total of 999 days. A total of 210 Axies have been banned across 7 accounts, and aside from Axies, the season 20 AXS rewards are also forfeited for the banned players.