SA Pro StingeR Gets Banned Mid-Match During DreamLeague Season 22 Qualifier

Recently, Valve has ramped up taking action against players, including pros and big streamers, who are involved in smurfing. During the DreamLeague Season 22 South American closed qualifier, Mad Kings team captain Steven "StingeR" Vargas was banned live during a series against Thunder Awaken. As a result, Mad Kings received a default loss and was eliminated from the qualifier, while Thunder Awaken marched on forward. While the ban was sudden and mid-game, there was already talk in the community about how StingeR's account was being boosted by his own teammate.

Dota 2 Pro Gets Banned Mid-Game at DreamLeague Season 22

During the lower bracket round 2 series against Thunder Awaken at the DreamLeague Season 22 SA closed qualifier, Mad Kings’ team captain and support player StringeR was banned during game 2. The reason for the ban was later identified as account sharing and boosting and it involved Mad Kings’ carry player David "Parker" Nicho Flores.

The ban was a product of an altercation between Parker and former Infamous player Pedro "mini" Paula. mini took responsibility for reporting StingeR's account for smurfing, which eventually led to the ban.

On 15th January, mini's post gathered momentum on Reddit and it showed a screenshot of Parker’s in-game communication through StingeR’s account. The in-game chat showed Parker telling his teammates, “I’m Parker, let me go mid please,” via StingeR’s account.

Following this, mini and Parker had a heated exchange on X (Twitter). When mini revealed that his report led to the ban, Parker sarcastically commented that he wishes to see mini at a TI (The International). parker also argued, "I don't see anything wrong with what I did, he [StingeR] is a professional player and I am not boosting him as you think, I couldn't play my account for reasons, and I went to his [StingeR] account to start practicing, because I have a team and I have a chance to qualify.”

To this mini reiterated that account sharing is bannable and that's why StingeR is banned. He added, "You should take it up to Valve, not me. All I did was file the complaint, as you asked me to. Also, being unable to play on your account for "reasons" isn't passable lmfao grow up a***ole.”

While mini called out Parker and how he taunted in-game, Parker simply stated that he did not ask mini to report the account. He allegedly stated that his account was banned for a short time and blamed mini for the misunderstanding.

Valve seems to be on another smurf ban wave as along with StingeR other professional players’ smurf accounts were reportedly banned on 17th January. These players include:

• Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov

• Artem "Yuragi" Golubiev

• Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk

• Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko