steel’s ban set to expire in January 2025

steel took to X, sharing that his ban will expire in January 2025, following which he is allowed to participate in Valve-sponsored events.

Though unspecified at the time of handing it out, Valve followed up with an announcement nearly a year later in 2016, stating that the ban was permanent.

"I was told my criteria and why they (Valve) set a specific date for me, so I'd assume they would have similar time frames and situations."
steel told HLTV, when asked about his iBUYPOWER teammates

An investigation by Richard Lewis unveiled the infamous iBUYPOWER scandal where they purposefully lost a match (match fixing) to NetcodeGuides.com in 2014 in order to make a quick buck.

The following names were attached to the iBUYPOWER scandal -

• DaZeD⁠

• swag⁠

• AZK⁠

• steel⁠

• ⁠ dboorN⁠

• cud

• Casey Foster

ESL and Dreamhack lifted their bans in 2017 following which, steel capitalised on the opportunity, captaining team Ghost and leading them to several tournament victories against strong opponents.

In his post on X, steel mentions that he never gave up despite the odds being stacked against him and is hopeful for the future.