Corentin “MarineLorD” Pahlevan won the French national qualifier for DreamHack Tours on 7 April 2016. The next day Blizzard took the place away — not because anything about that qualifier was in question, but because of a single ladder match played somewhere else.
1. What happened over two days
| Step | What happened | Why it mattered |
|---|---|---|
| 7 April 2016 | Wins the French national qualifier | A clean result, not itself disputed |
| Around the same period | Deliberately loses a ladder match to DnS | A separate system, run for seeding |
| 8 April 2016 | Blizzard suspends MarineLorD, DnS and MajOr; MarineLorD is also disqualified from the qualifier | The penalty crosses from the ladder into the qualifier |
| — | FireCake takes the vacated place | The seat he earned goes to the next player |
The result that was erased and the act that erased it happened in two different competitions.
2. Which result actually got punished
Read quickly this is an ordinary match-fixing ban. Read closely and the axis is narrower. He did not fix the qualifier. He gave away a ladder game — and the penalty for that reached backward into a national qualifier he had already won on his own play.
His own admission is about the ladder, in French: “J’ai donné une victoire à DnS (ce qui potentiellement modifié le top 16 du ladder)” — “I gave DnS a win, which potentially altered the ladder’s top 16.” It says nothing about the qualifier, because by every account we found the qualifier was clean.
The ruling did not separate the two. Points were withdrawn from the ladder process, and on top of that the qualifier result was cancelled. The qualifier was not where the offence happened; it was the nearest thing available to take.
That is a different shape from Life’s case, where the fixed matches and the punished results were the same matches. It is closer to Woosnam losing two strokes for a club he never swung — the thing taken away and the thing done wrong sit in different places, and the rule does not require them to line up.
3. What the three did
Blizzard described the games as win-trades arranged to raise DnS’s rating without costing the other two their own ladder standing, and warned that everyone with access to a guilty account would be punished — language pointing at shared account access, not only at thrown games between separate accounts.
MarineLorD did not contest the facts. He called the act serious and said he regretted letting his supporters down.
4. What it cost
- MarineLorD — suspended from Blizzard-sponsored events through 30 June 2016, 2016 WCS points forfeited, and the DreamHack Tours qualifier win cancelled, with the place passing to FireCake.
- DnS and MajOr — the same suspension and the same forfeiture.
5. What is confirmed and what is not
Confirmed — the 7 April qualifier win, the 8 April announcement, the suspension running to 30 June 2016, the points forfeiture, the retroactive disqualification, FireCake receiving the place, and MarineLorD’s own admission.
Not confirmed — the exact mechanics of the account sharing referenced in the ruling, and whether any rule change followed. We found none that names this case.
In one line
He won the qualifier on his own play — and lost it over a ladder game handed to a friend in a different competition entirely.
Sources
Both opened and read on 31 August 2026.
- GosuGamers on the suspensions — the three suspensions through 30 June 2016, the points forfeiture, the disqualification from the French qualifier, the description of the games as win-trades, and the account-access warning.
- Millenium on the disqualification — the 7 April qualifier win, the French-language admission, and FireCake receiving the place.
