The game with the biggest prize pool in all of gaming just banned 46 pros

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DOTA 2 is one of the biggest games in esports. Last week, Valve and Perfect World Esports banned a total of 46 esports players. It caught 2 entire teams and 21 players were banned for life.

What game is it?

  • DOTA 2 is a Free2Play MOBA developed by Valve and distributed on Steam.
  • The International, DOTA 2’s World Championship, has an annual prize pool in the tens of millions and is considered the game with the highest winnings.
  • The International 2021 ranks as the esports tournament with the largest prize pool of all time at $40 million.
  • The International 2022 had a prize pool of $18.9 million. The winning team, Tundra Esports, won $8.5 million. The German professional Leon “Nine” Kirilin was there.

    • What is this ban? Perfect World Esports is Valve’s Chinese partner to host DOTA 2 and CS:GO esports in China. Last Thursday, March 9th, 2023, Perfect World Esports announced on Twitter that a list of DOTA 2 esports players were banned from tournaments by Valve and Perfect World Esports.

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    Why were the players banned? Valve and Perfect World Esports did not give a specific reason why the players are banned.

    In the statement on Twitter, Perfect World simply wrote that the players were banned “due to violations of esports integrity”.

    Entire professional teams banned

    Which players were banned for how long? A total of 46 players were banned, of which, according to PC Gamer, 21 professionals got it for life. In addition, 13 players received a 2-year ban. The remaining 12 players were “only” banned for one year.

    Two Chinese teams that were still taking part in the major tournament in Lima at the end of February/beginning of March were hit particularly hard by the bans – EHOME and Knights/Antarctic Penguins (via dota2.com)

    The Knights traded almost their entire team just before the Major in Lima, replacing four out of five players. Only Xiao “XCJ” Chaojian remained in the line-up. On top of that, the team changed its name from “Knights” to “Antarctic Penguins”.

  • EHOME: Three players received a two-year ban, one player is banned for one year and the fifth player is banned from playing tournaments for life.
  • Knights/ Antarctic Penguins: Both the four new players and the old team were suspended, as was the remaining XCJ.
  • The 4 former Knights players who last played under the team “Solitude” (formerly “Dawn Gaming”) have been permanently banned.
  • Of the four new players, one was permanently banned, two for 2 years and one for a year.

    • However, the 46 banned e-sportsmen are not alone in their fate. Valve only blocked over 40,000 cheaters in DOTA 2 at the end of February.

    Steam: Valve sets a trap for cheaters in DOTA 2 – more than 40,000 tap in, are permanently banned

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