It seems that China is addressing and cracking down on alleged match-fixing in the region.
Rarely does a year goes by that match-fixing doesn't end up coming up at some point. Despite the lifetime bans that have been applied by Valve starting in 2016, it still seems to rear its ugly head from time to time.
Now, it seems that China is taking some active measures against and regarding those that are allegedly involved.
Although the information is limited at the moment, it appears that China is taking serious steps including the use of lie detectors, something that is not always reliable.
Of course, a false positive could have life-changing ramifications and it is unclear how or if Valve is or will be on board with the results and punishments.
Last year, two Chinese teams participating in the Dota 2 Secondary Professional League have been provided bans of varying degrees from all future MarsTV and DPL tournaments. ULrica- and Rock.Young were exposed when the community started circulating clips from the group stage where there seemed to be plenty of examples of suspicious behavior right from the start.
Players on both teams were dying without using any items or abilities. There were also illogical chases which involved unnecessary tower damage being taken, that eventually led to deaths with no favorable trades. The game ended with Rock.Y 5-manning down the mid lane with minimum resistance from the players of ULrica.
A report was submitted to Valve, however, there appears to have not been any ban issued from the software developer company itself.
A detailed analysis of the problem of match-fixing in our article from two years ago shows how the Dota 2 scene has made little progress on the front with little-to-no reform by Valve, the tournament organizers or the organizations of the teams themselves - but perhaps the tides are turning, at least in China.
Dota 2 doesn't have as big of a problem with match fixing right now, not compared to other esports, but Valve can't afford to wait for it to become an issue, and should be proactive - both in implementing the lessons learned in CS and helping teams keep their own scenes clean.
