The former Team Knights players, along with some EHOME and other pro players have received bans by Valve and Perfect World for 'foul play'.
Earlier today, 46 players mainly from China received a ban from Valve and Perfect World as reported by Dota 2 official Weibo account. That is nearly the entire new generation of Chinese professional players.
Which means the DPC 2023 Spring Tour for China is going to need a quick and massive overhaul of teams before next week.
*Important to note that Daniel "Ghost" Chan on Xtreme Gaming is not the same Ghost on the list.
Perfect World Esports and Valve jointly decided to suspend the following players who interfere with fair competition. During the suspension period, they will be strictly prohibited from participating in all DOTA2 events hosted by Valve and Perfect World Esports.
Most players have received lifetime bans, although some have received two or one-year bans based on the investigation results.
- 21 lifetime bans
- 13 2-year bans
- 12 1-year bans
Of particular interest to fans and the community is that of former Team Knights and the players from EHOME.
One month ago during the Chinese Division I DPC 2023 Winter Tour, Team Knights were accused of match-fixing or some other 'foul play'.
Chinese caster called 杰出哥 documented the whole team wandering around vision aimlessly to detect enemy wards. The caster specifically downloaded a cheat that will glow white light on a friendly hero when under vision, and Knights players started to have suspicious behavior every time the white light showed up.
Allegedly, they were using these cheats cooperatively against PSG.LGD, Team Aster and iG.
The video can be viewed HERE.
And then, during the last week of league play in the DPC Winter Tour Team Knights went 0:2 against EHOME. At that time Vitalii "v1lat" Volochai claimed that the match was fixed based on the information he received from his partners at GG.Bet and other fans reported abnormal betting behavior.
Although the news spread around the community and Perfect World even announced that it sent some "evidence" to Valve, it seemed that nothing came out of it and eventually Team Knights qualified for Lima Major.
Lima Major 2023
Fast Forward to Lima, Peru for Lima Major 2023.
On February 22nd, both maps of Knights against Entity had shady betting activity during the group stage. Besides the unusual amount of bets on the loss of the Chinese team on both maps and a match, a lot of money was also bet on the odd amount of kills on both maps.
Then on February 24th again there were concerns against Geek Slate. Even while the Chinese team was ahead by 5k, the odds on them winning were extremely low, showing abnormal amounts of money bet on them losing the match.
Team Knights and EHOME were the first two teams to drop at the Lima Major.
The implications of Valve allowing two teams to attend a DPC Major with DPC points and significant money on the line are huge.
Not only does it affect the outcome and compromise the competitive integrity of the Major and therefore subsequent points towards The International, but it also sends a message that teams and players can get away with almost anything even during some of the biggest events being held.
With the reports having been made during the season, action should have been made in a more timely manner and a clear message of intolerance sent.
Prior Match-fixing, Cheating and Bans
Only two weeks ago in the biggest ban wave in Dota 2, Valve banned over 40,000 Dota 2 players for using third-party software that gave them an advantage in the game.
According to Valve, the third-party software used by cheaters was accessing information used internally by the Dota client that wasn’t visible during normal gameplay, giving the cheater an unfair advantage.”
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Three months prior to that PGL released a list of ten Dota 2 players that have just been permanently banned by Valve for account sharing and impersonating other players.
Among the ten CIS players included, Virtus.pro’s carry player, Kamil “Koma`” Biktimirov. Koma` was registered and set to begin playing under the VP banner for the DPC season.
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Ten months ago a total of 10 Southeast Asia players received a lifetime ban from Valve-sanctioned tournaments for match-fixing and for playing Dota Pro Circuit qualifiers on multiple accounts for more than one team, including well-established Malaysian players Cheng "vtFαded" Jia Hao and Lai "AhJit" Jay Son.
- Read vtFaded and AhJit receive lifetime bans from Valve along with all players of Team Orca and Apex
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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 players have received lifetime or 'indefinite' bans from Valve-sanctioned events. Ultimately ending their careers, their dreams coming to a full stop.
