Match Fixing Scandal, Valve Laws Newbee Prohibition from Competing for Life

GAMEFINITY.ID, Jakarta – Newbee’s Dota 2 team, along with their entire roster are permanently barred from participating in Valve competitions. This is because they were involved in a match fixing scandal.

“Perfect World and Valve have decided to permanently suspend Newbee and five of his players. Suspended clubs and players will not be allowed to participate in official DOTA2 events hosted by Valve and Perfect World E-sports,” the statement read, as translated from Chinese by Google.

The reason behind Newbee’s ban was the team’s alleged involvement in the match-fixing scandal. The sentence is effective from January 1, 2021. The five members of the Newbee team who received the sentence were Xu “Moogy” Han, Yin “Aq” Rui, Wen “Wizard” Lipeng, Yan “Waixi” Chao, Zeng “Faith” Hongda

The sentence comes after an in-depth investigation into the alleged match-fixing scandal against the Avengers at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Qualifiers, last spring. In May, Newbee issued a statement denying the allegations and stating their intention to appeal.

For those who don’t know, Newbee is one of the most popular teams in the professional Dota 2 scene. They are winners of The International 4, as well as taking second place at TI 7. While Faith is a member of the Invictus Gaming team that won The International 2012.

So what is Match Fixing in Dota2? Match fixing in competitive games is when one team intentionally “loses”, usually in exchange for money. Other examples include certain players betting against their own game and betting some extra money.

Quoted from TalkEsport, match-fixing often tends to throw selective bets (like the first 10 kills) over the entire game to make it harder for people to know for sure if they have set the match.

Match-fixing is becoming increasingly common not only in Dota 2, but in other Esports as well. Newbee’s punishment is expected to be an example for other esports athletes who want to regulate matches and prevent them from doing so.