We recently have been reporting on the recent bans that have occurred in Axie Infinity in relation to match-fixing in the Season 20 PVP tournaments. Seven players have been found guilty of match-fixing and so their accounts have been banned indefinitely from eSports (which means they can’t compete in future seasons of PVP) and all their Axies, a total of 210, have been banned for 999 days, essentially making them dead in the water.
As of this writing, banned players xSkyyy, Axiemptomatic of RJB, and Aremzy of MetaGoons have all released statements admitting fault in the match-fixing and apologizing for their role in the whole matter. Even 1437, the top-ranked player of Season 20, released a statement that while such incidents were reported to him, he had no hand in directly reporting the banned players.
Last week, the guild MetaGoons released their own statement on the matter on Twitter as Aremzy was part of the guild prior to the close of Season 20.
In light of recent news with @AxieInfinity and the banning of 1 of our players
We are conducting a fully fledged investigation on our players
Only 1 player & 2 of our Axies were banned but @MetaGoons absolutely does not tolerate any match fixing or rule breaking of any kind ❗️
— MetaGoons (@MetaGoons) March 29, 2022
In their statement, they acknowledge that one of their players, Aremzy, was banned from Axie Infinity Esports and that they as a guild strongly condemn any match-fixing or rule-breaking of any kind. They also have stated that they are launching a full investigation into the matter with their players.
Axie Infinity is a card-based creature battle game where players can use creature NFTs called Axies to battle other players for cryptocurrency rewards of SLP and AXS. As the game relies heavily on PVP combat between players, the Axie team forbids any sort of match-fixing of any kind which is against Section 4 of Axie Infinity’s terms of service. Players have already been given a final warning back in January of this year about match-fixing and that sanctions would be placed against any player caught in such behavior.
MetaGoons has also publicly apologized for the incident for what they call “lack of professionalism.” They also stated that responsibility lies with them to ensure that their members comply with game rules. They also stated that the necessary and appropriate actions have been taken against any offending members.
MetaGoons have also stated that their support is with the Sky Mavis team regarding this incident. They have also asked people to standby as more information becomes available for their investigation.
We will be reporting on this ongoing story as it develops.