Joel has a history of controversy, so why not take a look at the whole thing?
flowskola and early promise
joel first came to prominence on the Swedish roster flowskola in the dying days of 2020. After a couple of runners-up finishes in online Swedish events, the result that made this writer take notice was their victory in the Dreamhack Open November 2020 Sweden qualifier, where they beat the more experienced Lilmix and Galaxy Racer sides, as well as Real Betis featuring a young Cai “CYPHER” Watson. flowskola were only a mix but contained two names readers in 2024 will recognize — nilo and chawwzyyy. Like those players, joel was only a teenager at the time.
Though they exited Dreamhack Open in last place, flowskola went on to win Fragleague Season 5, defeating Finnish squad SJ Gaming in the grand final, which saw chawzyyy and joel — then going by joelxd — get a call-up to none other than Galaxy Racer.
Galaxy Racer were regulars in the Relog Media/GRID Home Sweet Home cup series, and though they didn’t make many deep runs, joel was a common sight on the AWP. joel achieved a respectable 1.09 rating with the team, and they managed to retain their Fragleague title in season 6, again defeating SJ in the final. But in October of that year, joel’s promising career hit a stumbling block.
After their final match in Spring Sweet Spring 3, joel disappeared from the Galaxy Racer starting lineup, with ex-NiP rifler twist replacing him and chawzy picking up the AWP. The circumstances were never made public by Galaxy Racer, and the entire team was dropped at the end of October. It’s widely speculated behind the scenes, according to people that we’ve spoke to, that joel gambled away skins that had been lent to him by his teammates and friends, and his parents confiscated his PC as a result. This would explain both his sudden exit and the lack of public comment.
joel would return in the new year with strong performances in FACEIT Pro League, placing as the runner-up in EU for February, and winner outright in March. After mediocre performances with a couple of mix teams, he got a chance with brand new new Ukrainian organization Monte, with whom he finished runner-up in CCT Season 1 South Europe Series 1 and attended the IEM Rio EU RMR — Monte finished that event with a 1-3 record. joel had by this point given up the AWP and returned to a pure rifle role, and despite that still averaged a 1.10 rating in Monte’s colors.
Match-fixing or not?
joel was benched in Monte in uncertain circumstances, as the team never made a public announcement – not helped by a lack of clarity on their status as an organization. In any case, he disappeared from the team midway through CCT South Europe Series 1 to make way for a returning Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, and would not be seen on HLTV until the new year.
It later transpired that joel’s benching, as well as Monte’s later benching of REDS7AR, were linked to claims of match-fixing from the so-called ESIC “whistleblower”, Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov. Yarabeu’s claims, however, were themselves subject to scrutiny from veteran journalist Richard Lewis, and he was largely dismissed. Whether joel was match-fixing in Monte is a matter that only the Swede can tell us, but it marks the first appearance of a rumor that would dog him for the rest of 2023.
After Monte, joel opted to go back to his native Sweden with GODSENT, who having sold their Brazilian lineup wanted a domestic team on the books. A mixture of youth (ztr and Plopski joining from NiP) and experience (RuStY and draken, plus Golden as coach) meant a number of pundits had them as dark horses to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major and other events. The team peaked at #43 in the world and came 3rd-4th at BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic, but failed to make even the Major’s closed qualifier and struggled outside of that single online event.
joel was the team’s standout performer with a 1.11 rating across 119 maps, so it came as a surprise when he was the first player to be benched from the roster. GODSENT’s statement was extremely ambiguous, hinting at further information that would be released “in due course”. They focussed on their own rebuild, leaving joel to his own devices.
As of Monday this week Joel has been benched from the main roster. For the time being the team will play with Golden as a stand-in during ongoing and future tournaments.
— GODSENT (@GODSENT) May 26, 2023
We will release more information in due course. #godmode pic.twitter.com/BKhmSYZ3TM
He made a comeback in September with another mix team, Victory Zigzag. Victory Zigzag featured Bulgarian in-game leader bubble and an unknown Russian coach called Hardwell. They stormed to victory in the Pelaajat Nordic Masters Open Qualifier, taking down #39 in the world Espionage to do so, then beat MOUZ, ECSTATIC, and 4160Isk (a Swedish roster who would sign for Alliance shortly after) in the main event to qualify for BLAST Premier Fall Showdown.
If that all seems a bit too good to be true, it probably was. Three days later, ESIC announced that joel faced a provisional suspension for match-fixing during his time with GODSENT; the Swedish organization had contacted ESIC and handed over relevant evidence. At first, it seemed the rest of Victory Zigzag were unaffected, with coach Hardwell set to take joel’s place, but then Hardwell himself received a FACEIT ban. Eventually, BLAST bowed to public pressure and banned the team, reinstating 4160Isk in their place.
Joel was alleged to have placed bets on his own games in March of 2023, including in BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic (the same tournament GODSENT made semi-finals) and the IEM Dallas 2023 Europe qualifier — and charged with match-fixing. He was also accused of placing bets on CS:GO matches more generally between March and May 1 — itself a breach of ESIC’s Anti-Corruption Code. Joel denied the charges and suggested that the public pressure as a result of the BLAST Showdown qualification had played a part in the decision.
That was the last anyone heard of joel for two months until ESIC made a surprising announcement: no “compelling or conclusive” evidence of match-fixing had been found, and joel would be free to resume his career when his ban for the other betting charges expired — the 6th of January 2024. It goes to show the difficulty of making charges of match-fixing stick when the proof largely exists in chats between people with a vested interest in keeping things secret. ESIC had already edited their own press release to remove references to joel playing “particularly poorly”.
The community uproar was instant, but the question remained: who would take a chance on joel after so many false starts?
2024: Success and Failure
Joel ended up joining the rebooted TSM project, which had gone through enough tribulations by that point to fill a whole other article. There he would unite with coach Allan “Rejin” Petersen, himself previously banned by ESIC for his role in the coaching bug scandal. Rejin’s sentence was reduced for assisting ESIC with the investigation – ultimately resulting in Valve freeing him to coach Majors again as of this year, having initially received a permanent ban.
With a roster almost entirely different from the one originally assembled — retaining only valde as a consistent member — TSM failed to achieve anything of note with joel. In a world where there’s a new tier 2 tournament every day, it was honestly kind of impressive how little impact TSM made, in spite of joel putting up a 1.16 average HLTV rating. Joel left the organisation in the summer with Rejin targeting a full Danish rebuild of the squad.
Joel instead joined 5W Gaming, an Indian organization that also recruited the likes of Thomas, his former Monte team-mate REDS7AR, and Bulgarian AWPer h4rn. They were considered an eclectic mix, but again dark horses. What absolutely no one was expecting was for 5W to win the first event they entered — but at FISSURE Regional Clash Arena Europe they did just that. In groups, they swept aside the likes of Endpoint, Zero Tenacity, and Gaimin Gladiators, and though they lost to GamerLegion in the Swiss stage, they avenged themselves in the semi-finals. A bo5 grand final victory over 3DMAX saw them take home the $30,000 winners’ cheque… and then immediately leave 5W, accusing the organization of scamming them. They played seven matches, winning six, which left them just three short of qualifying under the Valve running.
Initially, it seemed the team would stick together, but then opted to disband and pursue individual offers. joel, along with 5W team-mate pr1metapz, took up an offer to join a new organization called BC.Game, backed by a crypto casino. Not only that, joel had AWP legend GuardiaN coaching and former NiP in-game leader Lekr0 alongside him.
Which brings us back to where we came in.
What do you even say at this point?
I’ve mentioned repeatedly that joel was talented, and the statistics that bear out that description. Though BC.Game only played 34 maps together he achieved a remarkable 1.26 average rating, even beating their AWPer (anarkez) by some margin.
As soon as a player is banned for cheating once, it makes all their results suspect. Joel, for the record, denies having ever cheated or intending to cheat. Some players have managed to make comebacks from cheating bans; s1mple is the most famous, being banned in 2015 for cheating and said ban being extended into the following year for ban evasion. It’s not out of the question joel could eventually return.
That said, if his ban by Akros is permanent, that is a significant blow. Akros was used for the Major open qualifiers earlier this year, and it’s expected that PGL will use it again. It’s also used by most second-tier tournaments, especially the likes of CCT.
To take an extremely sympathetic side, let’s bring up Ivan Toney who was banned by the Football Association for betting on matches. Plenty of people in the footballing world pointed out the hypocrisy of a scene where gambling sponsors feature prominently in stadiums, on kits, and on television, but then players are punished harshly for giving into the temptation. Counter-Strike’s scene is nothing but gambling sponsors, particularly in the lower tiers, with all kinds of controversies of their own – and Joel has been fully immersed in that world since he was an impressionable teenager. Ivan Toney capped his redemption arc by scoring a key penalty in England’s Euro 2024 quarter-final.
Of course, Ivan Toney was also never caught cheating, or accused of throwing matches.
It would be a great story for joel to make a future comeback, to prove himself legit and become a star. But to return to the s1mple example, it was not just because he was a generational talent that he came back, but also the efforts he took to make amends and improve. When joel signed with TSM following his ban he quoted Martin Luther King on oppression – suggesting humility is not high on his list of priorities.
Chawwzyyy, joel’s former Flowskola team-mate, has bounced back from a disappointing stint with Apeks by joining orgless roster Johnny Speeds — one of tier 2’s most exciting teams right now. The question is whether chawwzyyy can serve as an example to joel to get his life and career back on track, or just an example to everyone watching of how good joel could have been.
