With Dota 2 rosters locked in place, the 2023 DPC action has kicked off with open qualifiers. New faces and veterans alike have been trying to make it to the Closed Qualifiers, and some were trying to fool the system from the get-go. Earlier this morning, Valve took action against 10 players for account sharing, including a member of the new Virtus Pro squad.
The news came from PGL’s official Twitter account as the organizer shared a list of players who were banned from present and future Valve events, effective immediately.
Kamil “Koma`” Biktimirov of Virtus Pro, Aslan “Paradise” Vadilov of NA’s Felt, Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko of former B8 and Team Empire, Danil “illusion” Grzhevka of Ancient Tribe, and Viktor “SuperNova” Galichkin of HYDRA are some of the more notable names that shut the door on their Dota 2 careers.
In addition to not being able to participate in any future Valve events, the players on the list are also banned from PGL events. The two competitions make up almost 95 percent of Dota 2’s competitive scene, so the players in question will only be able to participate in minor tournaments that don’t have any ties with Valve or PGL if they decide to continue playing competitive Dota 2.
The players were convicted of account sharing and impersonating other players, meaning some were trying to help teams get through the Open Qualifiers by secretly playing for them, while others were lending out their accounts in the process.
In the meantime, Valve also banned South American player, Gianluca “Migi” Mendoza, for match-fixing.
The DPC leagues are yet to kick off officially as the Dota 2 world is currently underway with qualifiers, and it looks like Valve is more committed to leveling the playing field this season compared to previous years. The 11 bans from the start speak volumes, as the developer is generally considered detached from the community unless a scandal occurs.
