Steel's Valve Ban Will Run Out In 2025

By Tit Krajnik

26 Oct 2023

Tit Krajnik 26 Oct 2023

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Josha "steel" Nissan's Valve ban will expire in Jaunary 2025
Steel was banned in the infamous iBUYPOWER match fixing scandal in 2015
The 33-year-old has since played professional Valorant

Joshua "steel" Nissan

Josha "steel" Nissan has announced that his permanent ban from Valve-sponsored events will expire on January 26, 2025. However, he has not commented on whether his former iBUYPOWER teammates' ban will also elapse on the same date.

Steel is mostly known as a former member of the iBUYPOWER Counter-Strike team, which was caught in an infamous match-fixing scandal in 2015. An investigation revealed that the team intentionally lost games against NetcodeGuides.com in 2014, but it wasn't until a year later that Valve took action and "permanently" banned all players from all Valve-sponsored events.

In a post titled "Integrity and Fait Play", Valve handed out bans to players and three other people who helped orchestrate the match-fixing, including:

Sam "DaZeD" Marine
⁠Braxton "swag" Pierce
Keven "AZK" Lariviere
Joshua "steel" Nissan
Derek "dboorN" Boorn
Casey Foster

Even after the ban, steel kept competing in Counter-Strike with some lesser teams, such as Torqued, GX, Ghost Gaming, Ben's Anime Team, and Chaos Esports Club, before ending his CS career in August 2020, when he transitioned to Valorant.

Steel competed in Riot Games' FPS title from August 2020 until June 2023 as a member of 100 Thieves, T1, and Disguised, but earlier this month, he announced his return to Counter-Strike. On October 13, steel got picked up by a second-tier North American team, Bad News Bears.

"On the 10 year mark in January 2025, I will be allowed to participate at Valve partnered events. Against all odds, I've never given up. I'm ready to be defined by something new and more positive,"

Even though steel was given a permanent ban, it seems like it won't be permanent, as it's set to expire on the 10th anniversary of the iBUYPOWER ban on January 26, 2025. This means that steel will be able to compete at the biggest Counter-Strike 2 events as either a player or a coach.