Cover-Credits:
Ten Dota 2 players have been permanently banned by Valve for account sharing and impersonating members of other teams during tournaments. The Eastern European (EEU) audience has been particularly drawn to this issue, as all ten players hail from the region. Entity's captain, Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk, also commented on this on Telegram. Fishman said that though he did not know each player's specific situation, he surmised that at least some of the players may have had internet issues and as a result, gave their accounts to others so that their teams would not be let down during games. In addition, he has heard that some of them have engaged in match fixing, and there may be more permanent bans to come.
Fishman shares his thoughts on ten Dota 2 players getting Valve banned
There is a sense of shock among the community after news broke that ten players have seen the banhammer from Valve, and Fishman expressed a similar feeling.
He emphasized the situation with Virtus.pro specifically whose carry player Kamil "Koma`" Biktimirov (also known as "agressive child") is among the players banned, saying the team will now need to find a new player.
“Holy crap, this news - I'm in the ***, to be honest. Can you imagine, VP has carry, and now they don't have a carry? So what do we do? All the carries are busy, the man is banned. I understand if you got stuck during the official game... You're like, "I gotta give my friend his account so he can finish the game so I don't screw up the team." And then, bam, you get banned for life. Anlaki. I don't know if it was just this case or others. But it is, of course, very harsh.”
Fishman also speculated on who will take over as Virtus.pro's carry player, now that Koma` has been banned. “So is Cooman the new Virtus.pro player now? And who else? I wonder if Cooman even wants to play competitively. Oh yes, iLTW is also a free agent,” he said.
At the same time, there is even uncertainty about Virtus.pro competing in the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Winter Tour due to its roster being locked with Koma`. In the event that Valve allows Virtus.pro to change its carry, it will be making an exception. Koma's violation most likely occurred before he joined the team.
Fishman also said that he heard some of the players engaging in 322 (a term used for intentionally throwing a game). “Actually, I won't say the nicknames, but I've heard from other guys that half of these nicknames I've read are 322-eers. I can't confirm it, I just heard it.”
A separate Telegram post from Fishman expressed a stronger belief that these players engaged in match fixing because account sharing alone would not have got them banned. As he had heard, there were also more bans on the way.
“I already figured it out: all these guys who got banned, they're all 322-eers. Some of them were still playing with the software. They banned them for a reason. They say there will be a second wave of bans. Every one of these guys is a 322-eer. People wouldn't be banned if the account was transferred from one to the other.”
[transcriptions via cybersports.ru, dota2.net, translations via DeepL Translate]
While match fixing has been a major factor in Valve's permanent bans of Dota 2 pros, some players were also indefinitely banned earlier this year for account sharing. As history suggests, Valve used to enforce only partial bans for this activity.
Many of the 10 banned players were just starting out in Dota 2, and it's a shame their careers ended prematurely. Bans from Valve have increased in the last two years, which is a positive sign that serves to deter players from engaging in such unlawful activities and misconduct, which had become quite an issue.
