Selling degrees in esports: unanswered problem

One of the largest Dota 2 organizations in the world is facing the scourge of matchmaking in esports.

Newbee, the 2014 champion of The International, is facing match-fixing forces from many prominent parties in the Chinese Dota 2 village. The China Professional Dota 2 Association (CDA) and ImbaTV have banned both the organization and its players from participating in future events. This ban could be even more serious, as Valve and Chinese publisher Perfect World were both notified of the incident.

This is shocking news for Dota 2 fans. While match-fixing is common in many esports, it mostly takes place in small tournaments with unknown teams. The fact that a big name like Newbee was accused of selling matches and many players were banned from playing is shocking news.

Therefore, this article will take a look at the bets in Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and esports in general, as well as the history of the betting problem in traditional sports.

The organization Newbee has been banned indefinitely for matchfixing from the Chinese Dota 2 Professional Association, CDA-DPL Professional League and all IMBATV & MarsTV events. The players Moogy, Aq, Wizard, Waixi & Faith have also been given an indefinite ban. #dota2 pic.twitter.com/KsrPJlnVYt

— Beyond the Summit (@BeyondTheSummit) May 15, 2020

What is match-fixing (or match-fixing)?

Match-fixing (or match-fixing) can be done in a variety of ways, but in general, it is about one side trying to influence the outcome without trying their best.

In both esports and traditional sports, betting is mainly done for betting purposes. Betting can cause a player or team to lose on purpose to make sure they win money, or people on the team will “bet” themselves and guarantee a win.

Take a striking example from more than 100 years ago, when the Chicago White Sox baseball team of American baseball (Major League Baseball, MLB) intentionally lost the World Series in 1919. Many members of the team resented the owner. team owner but they were unable to leave due to MLB’s contractual obligations at that time. When the team was approached by a bettor and paid to intentionally lose, the members agreed to do it.

However, match-fixing doesn’t necessarily involve money, or losing.

In seeded tournaments, the opponent may try to seed the team by losing, avoiding facing the strong team early. The 2012 Badminton Olympics created a match-fixing scandal, when many players were found to have intentionally lost to avoid meeting certain opponents. This happened last year for CSGO, when Team Quesco intentionally lost the Liga de Videojuegos Professional Superliga 2019 group stage games to fall into a more suitable bracket in the playoffs.

Teams don’t have to lose to fix the match. Score scandals have happened in basketball many times, and they are often teams that guarantee they only win by a certain distance. This is done to manipulate bet results, especially in handicap markets.

Esports also has a long history of match-fixing

Match-fixing is a problem for all sports. The novelty in esports, combined with the huge betting industry and the low income of most players, has created the perfect recipe for match-fixing.

One of the earliest and largest cases of match-fixing in esports comes from 2010 during StarCraft: Brood War. Many top players including superstar Ma “sAviOr” Jae Yoon were found to have joined a pool of players that received money to intentionally lose, or bet on their own matches. A similar case occurred 5 years later in StarCraft 2, which resulted in many pro players being jailed.

The biggest match-fixing scandal in CSGO history: iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides

IBP was found to have lost bets through multiple intermediaries. When news began to spread about this, Valve banned many players and team members from competing permanently.

Dota 2 has also seen a lot of sales over the years

In 2015 and 2016, Valve banned several teams for alleged match-fixing. Notable among these is the Elite Wolves team from Peru in 2016.

Valve since then has not issued any new penalties, that’s because Dota 2 has not had any sales scandals in the past. Just a few weeks ago, CyberTRAKTOR was banned from the WePlay! Pushka League for allegedly ‘throw game’ before Cyber ​​Legacy. The accusations continued to erupt, specifically in the China region.

Newbee is perhaps the biggest name involved in dota 2, with Zeng “Faith” Hongda and Xu “Moogy” Han being the two prominent names caught up in the incident.

And the biggest name in Dota 2 involved in the matchmaking so far is Virtus.pro captain, Alexey “Solo” Berezin. The five-time major champion admitted to selling a match in 2013 and was banned from participating in StarLadder tournaments. However, Solo has never been penalized by Valve.

League of Legends is no exception

The Chinese LPL has seen several major match-fixing cases in the past year alone. In March, Wang “WeiYan” Xiang and the Rogue Warriors were banned from the LPL. In June 2019, Xiang “condi” Ren-Jie of LGD Gaming was banned for 18 months for allegedly participating in matchmaking.

So why is betting in Dota 2 and other esports such a bad thing?

You might think match-fixing isn’t a huge offence. No one was physically affected, and it wasn’t exactly cheating either. The problem lies in the integrity of the game. If not done, it is one of the fastest ways to kill a sport.

Major League Baseball was destroyed by the 1919 World Series scandal and almost collapsed. Recently, prominent names in sumo have been caught up in many scandals, including betting and match-fixing.

We fans need to get rid of this half-hearted thought. Esports titles like Dota 2 and CSGO rely heavily on the pro arena to survive. Match-fixing actions will have unpredictable consequences for the existence of esports in particular as well as sports in general.

According to win.gg