Cover-Credits:
Omega Esports has announced that the recent ban placed on the organization for alleged match fixing by Valve has been lifted. Omega Esports revealed that it conducted an internal investigation and contacted the organizers of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22 Tour 1 (Winter Tour). Now unbanned, Omega Esports will be able to compete in the next Tour (Spring Tour) of the DPC 2021-22 and any other Valve-sponsored events. At the time of writing this article, Shenal “AB” Daniel, the Dota 2 analyst, is the only member remaining on Omega Esports’ Dota 2 squad.
Omega Esports' appeal to be unbanned is accepted by Valve
“Valve representatives have accepted our appeal to lift the ban on our organization, and has allowed us to join the DOTA Pro Circuit Spring Season and other Valve-sponsored events,” Omega Esports announced.
On 23rd Nov 2021, Beyond the Summit, the organizer of Southeast Asian (SEA) DPC leagues in 2021-22 announced that some former and current Omega Esports members (Prince, Piolz, Van, Hiro, Zenki, and CTY) were banned by Valve for match fixing. Soon after, Omega Esports released a statement that the organizers of the league did not send it an official copy of the ban. Omega Esports also said that it does not condone match fixing and that it would investigate the matter.
Although the organization has been unbanned, the players who were involved in the Dota 2 match fixing incident remain banned. Omega Esports stated that it had terminated the contracts of Chris "CTY" Ian Francis Maldo, the Dota 2 coach, as well as players Prince "Prince" Daculan and Ryniel Keit "Zenki" Calvez. These three members were among the six who had been banned.
Patt “Piolz” Piolo Dela Cruz, Van Jerico "Van" Manalaysay, and Dave "Hiro" Hiro Miyata were three other players who were banned.
In its statement, Omega Esports also mentioned that it would be strengthening its internal processes to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. Neither Omega Esports nor Valve shared the evidence involved in the matter publicly.
Liew "Eren" Jun Jie, Ramzi "Ramz" Bayhaki, and Lee "Forev" Sang-don were members of Omega Esports when the ban announcement was made, having joined the team only three days earlier. All three of these players left the team later. Analyst AB, who has previously worked for organizations such as WG.Unity, Tigers, BOOM Esports and Signify, had also joined the team three days before the ban was announced. AB continues to be a member of Omega Esports. None of these four individuals were charged with match fixing and it remains to be seen if they will get together again to compete in the DPC 2021-22.
Omega Esports’ Division 1 slot was given to BOOM Esports for the Winter Tour. As a result, Omega Esports will likely have to participate in the open qualifiers in the Spring Tour in order to rejoin the DPC.
