Earlier this week a total of ten players received a lifetime ban from Valve sanctioned tournaments, adding to the already too-long list.
Although Alexey “Solo” Berezin and his infamous '322' might be the most notorious and first known ban in competitive Dota 2, Solo's punishment for match-fixing in 2013 lasted only one year. He was lucky. In the following years, his career thrived and he was able to continue to pursue his dreams.
Others were not as lucky.
March 2015 marked the first time Valve issued a lifetime ban to a Dota 2 player, team, or organization from their events.
Since then, more than 50 players have received lifetime or 'indefinite' bans from Valve sanctioned events. Ultimately ending their careers, their dreams coming to a full stop.
The most recent incident involves ten SEA players, including the well-established Malaysian players Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao and Lai "AhJit" Jay Son.
Beyond the Summit, which hosts the SEA DPC regional league, had reported that there was “evidence that shows that Team Orca players used Team Apex accounts to compete on their behalf.” The incident happened in the SEA regional league open qualifiers for a spot in Division 2. Additionally, Beyond the Summit gathered evidence of match-fixing by Team Orca players in BTS Pro Series and other third-party tournaments.
Indefinite bans for Match-Fixing
This most recent event has been the biggest wave of bans issued since 2015, when the SEA competitive scene took a massive reputation hit as eight players from MSI and Mineski confessed to taking part in a betting scheme in 2014. Along with them, players from Team Redemption and Arrow Gaming as an organization and two of their players, Yi Liong "ddz" Kok and Hsien Wan "Lance" Fua, also got permanently banned by Valve eventually.
Who can forget the 'infamous' Ewolves vs Infamous incident in the ProDota Americas Cup 3 in February 2016? Following the episode, and without a single word uttered - Freddy “SmAsH” Sina, Ricardo “mstco” Román, and Jesus “Ztok” Carhuaricra were deemed ‘ineligible’ for Valve team registrations in March 2016. The players learned of their bans when they tried to register for their teams before the roster lock.
These may seem like events from another lifetime ago, but the pattern has been pervasive.
Perhaps the most surprising was when Newbee, Zeng "Faith" Hongda and Xu "Moogy" Han received lifetime bans for match-fixing in the last Minor qualifiers of DPC 2020 season.
Only two days later it was revealed that the same fate awaited Chinese team Avengerls.
Last year, in the DPC 2020-21 season, two lower-division NA teams, Pecado Squad Gaming and Wind and Rain were banned due to match-fixing.
Only several months ago, OMEGA esports and some current and previous players had been banned for match-fixing.
Team MagMa mid-laner, Chen "zc" Xiaofeng, was banned from DPC for match-fixing while on Team Ocean.
- Read more about Match-Fixing; The ugly truth is no one wins HERE.
Other lifetime bans
Although match-fixing bans are the most common bans issued by Valve, they aren't the only reason that players or teams receive the ban hammer.
News broke that vtFαded was permanently banned just a few days ago, but it wasn't the first time that the young player had received a prohibition for competing. Last year he missed the DPC entirely when he was temporarily banned for account sharing. vtFαded played the DPC qualifiers with Team D while he was still under contract with another team that already had a slot in the DPC. Team D was disqualified and vtFαded received a one-year ban from Dota Pro Circuit.
In North America Jimmy "DeMoN" Ho was banned from competing due to misconduct.
Lifetime bans in traditional sports do exist for gambling, cheating, drug use, and misconduct. And for good reason.
These behaviors and incidents not only affect the integrity of the game and esports, but they also contribute to toxicity.
Do you agree that lifetime bans are the way to go? Or should there be some type of 'rehabilitation' a player can complete with a limited term ban sentence?
