Newbee Claims that Their Players Were Coerced into Making Unfavourable Statements by the CDA
- Earlier this month, Newbee was blacklisted from Chinese tournaments by the CDA for allegedly matchfixing their games.
- Newbee sent out a legal notice, earlier this week stating that their players were coerced into making false statements and requested proof of matchfixing from the CDA.
- The CDA responded to this by stating that they've submitted the proof to Perfect World and Valve. They also denied all allegations of coercion.
Earlier this month, Chinese Dota 2 team Newbee was blacklisted from Chinese Dota 2 competitions, by the Chinese Dota 2 Professional Association (CDA) for match-fixing their games. Newbee denied these allegations and stated that they would appeal against the blacklist.
On 28th May, Newbee made a statement on its social media page stating that have never been shown the proofs CDA claims to have. Moreover, they state that the players interviewed by CDA were intimidated during the interviews and tricked to make unfavourable statements against the club.
The organisation has also issued a legal notice to Chinese DOTA2 Professional Association (CDA) in which they’ve made multiple allegations against the organization.
Summary of Newbee’s Allegations in the Legal Notice
- Newbee claims that the CDA made the announcement of its ban before all the interviews were concluded. They state that this was unconventional and an attempt to malign their organisation.
- The team’s players claim that they were intimidated during the interviews
- Allegedly, although the players asked for proof of their match-fixing, the CDA did not show the evidence to them whilst they coerced the players to make unfavourable statements by intimidation and temptation.
- Newbee claim that all the players have appealed CDA’s decision, twice. But none have received a response from the organisation.
- The club alleged that the CDA’s handling of this situation has damaged their reputation. As a result, they also stated that they believe that there is a possibility that some of the organisation’s members want to slander their club.
- It also demanded the association to send proof of Newbee’s match-fixing within 3 days and revoke all the announcements that CDA made before the matter is ascertained.
CDA’s Response
Today, the CDA responded to this by denying Newbee’s allegations of coercion and stating that they’ve already submitted the proof of matchfixing to Valve and Perfect World. They also stated that they would continue to stand by the statement they made on 15th May (where they blacklisted Newbee).
“The CDA Association conducted cross-checks and on May 15th, we borrowed the meeting room of Mars Media to conduct a separate and detailed inquiry to the five players, and informed the players in advance that this inquiry was based on a voluntary basis and that we recorded the entire process. There was no coercion, intimidation, etc. throughout the inquiry.
The CDA Association submitted all the videos to Perfect World on May 18 and to Valve on May 19.
During the investigation talk, CDA Association always hoped the players could realize their errors and mend their ways. After the investigation, players and relevant interest groups chose to collude with each other, and they tried to overturn the fact they stated alone in the talk. Thus, we were very disappointed.
CDA Association will firmly stick up for the announcement made on May 15th. Again, we emphasize that based on the ecology and environment of China DOTA2 professional tournaments and our zero tolerance of improper profit-making activities like match fixing, CDA Association will never appease such behavior.”
Neither Perfect World nor Valve has made a statement about this matter. Newbee has not responded to the CDA's statement.
