It looks like WePlay! Esports can’t escape this match-fixings involvement, after yet another one for the books. Although the organizers are still investigating two participating teams, a precise banned from their succeeding tournaments of one pro team has already been announced.
The games in question happened in Omega League Asia Divine segment of the competition. Matches between Execration and Cignal Ultra, and LING ER and DeMonster are both currently on the hot seat as organizers examine their legitimacy.
[embed]https://twitter.com/WePlayDota2_/status/1293798585906204672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw[/embed]The banned Chinese team’s match had the betting companies question if there was match-fixing involved. When WePlay! was notified about this, the organization immediately held an internal investigation, specifically LING ER’s second game. The shady and doubtful activities of the players concluded their inquisition of the team losing intentionally. Hence, the decision to ban the entire team from the Omega League.
Vitaliy “Nexius” Bozhko, WePlay! ‘s lead eSports manager, released a statement regarding the controversy. “We’ve looked at the match between LING ER and DeMonster ourselves and asked for opinions and any data from analysts, players, and representatives of betting companies.” He also added that the evidence they have collected and the “subjective opinions” points directly to LING ER losing their second match on purpose.
With this comes disqualification of the said team’s players. Namely, Yeo” TigerCat” Chun Kiat, Wang “大猪” Jie, Law “眼高手低” Chee Hoong, Liew “Bee” Wei Hang, and Hao “76561198125784995″ Zeng. The five pro Dota 2 players received year-long disqualification from all events held by WePlay! Esports as well as Epic Esports Events. The player bans end on August 13, 2021.
The player bans can also not be lifted by WePlay! if other events organizers find that these players have participated in the same fowl eSports manner.
On top of all of these, LING ER matches from the current tournament have been removed from records, previous or scheduled games, alike.
The organization’s website accounts that all past match LING ER has participated in are automatically lost, and points are awarded to their opponents. This scandal affects the ranking of teams such as For The Dream, Aster.Aries, DeMonster, Blaze, and EHOME.Immortal.
The root of all the match-fixing investigations happened during the XctN and Cignal match on August 9. WePlay! has turned to betting companies that manage gambling for the particular series. The bookmakers stated that the series had “spawn some unusual activity,” though evidence is not sufficient to conclude the teams to be match-fixing. From WePlay! ‘s statement, they said that “we rule that none of the participants played in bad faith.”