Two lower-division NA teams, Pecado Squad Gaming and Wind and Rain, have been banned from competing in the DPC and any Valve events due to match-fixing.
Match-fixing issues once again rears its ugly head in the Dota 2 scene. This time it includes two teams that were competing in the lower division of the NA DPC 2021 Season.
According to the announcement, the teams AND the full rosters are officially banned. There is no further information if that ban extends to the substitute players.
For those that have been around the scene for some time, they might remember that Vladimir "yol" Basov was part of the Rox roster in 2016 that was implicated in betting fraud over a Starladder match versus zRage. Alexey "Solo" Berezin received a lifetime ban from Starladder events, while BzzIsPerfect, Yol, Dread, and standin dnq each received 3-year bans.
Chad "Szabo666" Szabo has stated that he has not been involved in the events but will need to appeal to Valve if he wishes to have his ban reversed.
As of now, there have been no cases where Valve has reversed their decision after they completed a full investigation.
Wind and Rain is usually known as a British organization that had fielded a roster in the European starting in 2018. In April, they moved forward to the North American region and picked up A-team to represent them.
Pecado Squad Gaming came into the DPC 2021 Season 2 from the open qualifiers and then the closed qualifiers. They were primarily a Chinese player team that would have had at least three players residing in the NA region.
Despite the lifetime bans that have been applied by Valve starting in 2016, match-fixing still seems to rear its ugly head from time to time. Take a look at our deep dive into the subject HERE.
