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Unikrn, a world-leading gaming, eSports, and entertainment company, partnered up with FACEIT, the leading competitive platform for online multiplayer games, to launch the first-ever competitive integrity program for eSports.
The goal of the program is to bring eSports players, teams, and tournament organizers together to develop and encourage best competitive practices for fair and legitimate matches. That includes player code of conduct, standards for investigating possible violations, and specific rules tailored to both LAN and online-based events.
Increased integrity means a better eSports business
“As eSports reaches a tipping point of mainstream acceptance, the legitimacy of match results is more paramount than ever,” Rahul Sood, the CEO of Unikrn, said in the announcement. “Advertisers, investors and fans depend on it, and that is why we’re launching a collaborative system to ensure competitive integrity and anti-cheating across all major competitions.”
The program, authored by Bryce Blum, director of eSports at Unikrn, will rate participating leagues and tournaments along different tiers of competitive integrity based on their compliance to those standards. It will encourage a constant dialogue between players, teams, organizers, and other third parties, developing best practices that competitions can adopt to safeguard the competitive integrity of eSports.
“No single party can safeguard competitive integrity on its own. A comprehensive approach to address this issue will require the eSports industry to be as innovative as the games themselves. We need to establish industry-wide standards, share information, and harness our collective resources to achieve the results we can’t obtain individually,” said Blum.
Joined forces
FACEIT will play a key role in the development and rollout of the initiative, acting as the first certified, partnered organizer and offering crucial on-the-ground feedback regarding its functionality.
“Fairness and sportsmanship are defining pillars of competitive sports; you can’t have one without the other. This partnership with Unikrn ensures that both players and fans can be confident in the results of Unikrn events,” said Michele Attisani, co-founder and COO of FACEIT.
“We’re happy to work with Unikrn to begin the important work of making eSports as fair as possible. This means players and spectators can focus on seeing gameplay at the highest level of skill. This is a win for everyone.”
Integrity across the entire community
According to Unikrn, they are currently in discussion with prominent players, teams, organizers, and publishers throughout the eSports industry, creating important partnerships and seeking feedback on early drafts of the certification criteria and process. This will be the key to developing a successful program along with getting the necessary parties involved.
