The spotlight has been on flaming and harassment in Dota 2 ever since TI winners Ceb and 33 called out Entity’s Fishman for talking smack in ranked games, but another TI winner, Sneyking, has taken it a step further again by calling for tournament organizers to make “all-chatting offensively” in pro matches a “punishable offense.”
Sneyking’s comments weren’t aimed at just Fishman either; he was talking about the entire Dota 2 pro scene in general.
There have been quite a few instances of toxic all-chatting throughout the years. The latest happened when BetBoom offlaner Nightfall wrote “gg ez” after beating One Move in the DPC Winter Tour. Nightfall received a warning, but otherwise went unpunished.
Sneyking wants TOs to crack down harder by making it a punishable offense. As for what constitutes offensive all-chatting, he said any kind of harassment, and the punishment should be a draft penalty, a fine to the player who made the comments, or both.
Not everyone agreed with him. Wildcard’s Sammyboy asked why, seemingly implying it shouldn’t be the case, while fans said things like “don’t be so brittle” and that it should be allowed. Otherwise, where do you draw the line between poking fun and being offensive?
Some players have been punished for offensive all-chat comments before. When BetBoom’s Pure played for Virtus.Pro in 2022, he drew a militarist symbol believed to be condoning the invasion of Ukraine on the map, and as a result, his team was disqualified from the Regional Playoffs and his contract was terminated.
It’s not a like-for-like situation compared to all-chatting that is apolitical but still offensive, but it shows precedent exists, meaning Sneyking may be onto something.
