The Counter-Strike 2 scene outside the top tier doesn’t always remain in the spotlight. It is precisely in such environments that there is sometimes room for questionable and even illegal practices. Patrick “olimp” Wozniak, captain of the Polish team Walczaki, spoke about one such incident in an in-depth interview with the Polish esports media outlet Esporcik.
According to the player, his team was once offered a substantial sum to intentionally lose an official match. Wozniak recalled this incident while discussing the less visible side of the professional CS2 scene.
According to olimp, the offer was more than generous even by the standards of the semi-professional scene. The players were essentially asked to intentionally lose one map, and each team member was to receive $60,000 for doing so.
“We were offered to throw one match; we were supposed to get $60,000 each,” olimp said in an interview with Esporcik.
This refers to a match against the German team BIG, which was scheduled to take place on the eve of the 2025 Birch Cup in Gdańsk. The tournament began on September 26, 2025, so the timeframe described by the player coincides with this period.
“I remember it was a match against BIG before the tournament in Gdańsk, so anyone can check whether we won or lost. Fortunately, we managed to win, but offers like that do come up. Of course, we turned them down,” explained olimp.
The story of this Polish player once again highlights the challenges that lower-tier esports can face. Unlike top-tier teams with high salaries and prize money, participants in regional competitions often find themselves in a much less stable financial situation.
At the same time, there are no reliable statistics showing that match-fixing occurs more frequently in certain countries. Therefore, any attempts to link such cases to a specific national scene without sufficient evidence would be inaccurate.