Dota 2 developer Valve Software announced on Sunday (18 December) that they have permanently banned 10 Ukrainian and Russian players for account sharing and impersonating members of other teams during tournament games ahead of the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season.
The bans were publicly announced by PGL, the organiser for the DPC’s Western European and North American regional leagues, who also said they have banned the players from their own events.
The list of banned players include Kamil “Koma`” Biktimirov, Aslan “Paradise” Vadilov, Danil “illussion” Grzhevka, Vladislav “Imba4” Khoroltsev, Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko, Viktor “SuperNova” Galichkin, Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin, “keintseru”, “deihra”, and “lilskrip”.
While there were no high-profile names on the list of banned players, Koma` was signed by top Eastern European organisation Virtus.pro (VP) to be part of its roster for the 2023 DPC season earlier this month.
In a statement posted shortly after the list of banned players was revealed, VP said they “are conducting an internal investigation to understand more about the circumstances that led to this ban”.
Valve has regularly handed out permanent bans on players and teams that were caught participating in illegal activity in official matches — such as account sharing and match-fixing, among other offenses — before the start of the DPC season.
Prior to the announcement of bans on the 10 Ukrainian and Russian players, Peruvian player Gianluca “Migi” Mendoza was also banned due to match-fixing and was removed from his team, Dreamers Esports.
Ahead of the past 2021-2022 DPC season, Southeast Asia’s Omega Esports as well as six of its players were banned due to their involvement in match-fixing activities.
Valve has yet to give an official statement on the latest wave of bans that it handed out.
The 2023 DPC season is set to begin in early January 2023, starting with Division I competition in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia, North America, and South America. Division II competition will begin in late January and early February, now no longer running alongside Division I for the new season.
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