ESIC hand lifetime ban to StarCraft II player Xue ‘Firefly’ Tao

The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) have issued a lifetime ban to Chinese StarCraft II pro Xue “Firefly” Tao after uncovering his involvement in a coordinated match-fixing and profit-sharing scheme. The ruling follows a months-long investigation that began in April and resulted in Firefly’s provisional suspension in June—effectively ruling him out of the Esports World Cup.

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The enquiry was sparked by community allegations and testimony from former pro player Jinhui “Jim” Cao, who shared details on Chinese forums about his collaboration with Firefly to manipulate match outcomes for betting profit. This testimony, combined with evidence from betting sites and financial records, led ESIC to issue formal charges.

According to the commission, Firefly deliberately lost matches across seven StarCraft II events to align with pre-match bets placed by Jim, often down to exact scorelines. ESIC’s investigation found over 100 betting slips across three sportsbooks, yielding an 83% win rate for Jim. One particularly suspicious case involved Firefly’s 3-0 defeat to Lee “Bunny” Jae-seon during EWC qualifiers—earning Jim more than ¥32,000 (~$4,480 USD).

Further evidence included chat logs and payment records, with ESIC revealing that Firefly received over ¥97,000 (~$13,580 USD) in Alipay transfers from Jim. A WeChat exchange dated August 21, 2024, showed the pair discussing past payments and efforts to hide their activities.

In total, Firefly was found guilty of 21 breaches of the ESIC Integrity Program, including betting on covered matches, sharing insider information, and actions bringing esports into disrepute.

Jim has been provisionally suspended and has until July 14, 2025, to respond to formal charges. ESIC stated the findings “amounted to an egregious breach” of their integrity code, reinforcing their commitment to protecting the competitive integrity of esports across all member events.