Dota 2 Player Permabanned From StarLadder TV For Match-Fixing

The world of professional athleticism is always an arena wherein cheating can prove highly profitable.  As a result of the potential for profit, the penalties for such behavior tend to be appropriately harsh.  On the digital frontier there are similar issues for e-sports athletes, those who play videogames for a living can find themselves faced with similar temptations.  For the most part, they seem to be resisting them despite the sometimes entirely unprofessional behavior all-too-prevalent in the competitive scene.

For the most part

StarLadder TV is a competitive Dota 2 network running tournaments for professional teams.  Alex “Solo” Berezin is a member of the team roX.KIS, and he has received a permanent ban from ever competing in an event by StarLadder TV.  Three of his teammates have received three-year bans, with the team itself having a ban for a full year.  Why?  Because a bet placed on Berezin’s team losing one particular match was paid to Berezin’s account after a “suspiciously horrible performance…”

Berezin and his team adamantly deny the accusations leveled against them, claiming the IP from which the bet was placed was not Berezin’s and the site the bet was placed on can cash rewards to any account a better knows the ID for.  Technically this would allow anyone who wanted to to place a bet to cash to any professional player’s account, since their game IDs are all publicly known.

Why was the game so bad?

Team roX.KIS suggests the poor performance was due to the team having no chance of progressing in the tournament, giving them no motivation to perform.  The problem with such a justification is such a match is also perfectly-suited to actual match-fixing since the team itself has nothing to lose.

On a personal note, I also feel it is worth considering that a professional team should put forth an effort recognizably its best regardless of how much they stand to gain from victory.  If a team is not giving their very best in every game, they are not being professional about the game, only about the money involved.