DOTA 2 Player Given Lifetime Ban For Betting Against His Team

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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DOTA 2 Player Given Lifetime Ban For Betting Against His Team


Several of his RoX.KIS teammates were also given lengthy bans following a "suspiciously horrible performance" in a DOTA 2 Star Series match.

Alexey "Solo" Berezin has been given the heave-ho from Star Series league play following a match between his team, RoX.KIS, and zRage, which RoX.KIS lost in an uncharacteristically bad fashion. That led StarLadder TV to do some digging, resulting in the discovery that Berezin had put $100 on the opposing team at egamingbets.com that earned him $322 for losing.

The match had no impact on the season but betting against yourself and then throwing a game isn't just ethically wrong, it's obviously against the rules, too. So seriously against the rules, in fact, that Berezin has been permanently banned from Star Series play, while teammates Andrey "Dread" Golubev, Stanislav "BzzIsPerfect" Glushan and Vladimir "Yol" Basov have all been slapped with three-year bans. A fifth member of the team, Ivan "Vanskor" Skorokhod, was found not to be actively involved in the scam but because it was so systemic, the entire RoX.KIS organization has been suspended for one year as well.

In its defense, RoX.KIS issued a statement saying that the evidence against its players is "very uncertain," and that while a cash-out from the betting site to Berezin's Webmoney account was made, that can be done using nothing but his publicly available ID. It also claimed that because RoX.KIS had no chance of making it to the finals anyway, this match was just a formality and its players were only going through the motions, which is why they were hammered so badly.

"[Berezin] and Rox team do not agree with these accusations and we continue to ask for a full investigation of this incident (with the help from StarLadder judges, players and managers of Rox, and egamingbets)," the team said. "We look forward to understanding of this among our fans, and please do not make sudden conclusions."

Being Russian, I suppose it's possible that the guys on RoX.KIS have never heard of Pete Rose and thus did not have the opportunity to learn his sad lesson. But Charlie Hustle never bet against his own guys (so he says), which is a pretty big distinction - and while getting kicked from a DOTA 2 league isn't quite as big a blow as being permanently ineligible for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, it's still a pretty crappy way to go out.

Source: joinDOTA [http://www.joindota.com/en/news/9989-update-rox-kis-issues-statement]


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CriticalMiss

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From the headline I was expecting this to big a big-money scandal, $322 seems like a let down. Is the league they are playing in so bad that it was worth the risk of getting kicked out for less than the price of a PS4?
 

Charli

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Yeah I was looking too see this in the thousands, but a couple of hundred? Ouch. Still, that was a good thing to do, wrong is wrong, and spoiling the honest competitive nature of the e-sport this early in it's development is bad form.
 

Crazie_Guy

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Wow! A whole one hundred dollar bet! That is some serious match fixing right there. Don't spend all that 322 in one place!
 

The Rogue Wolf

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Aww, I was hoping there would be more players and money involved so I could draw parallels to the Black Sox scandal in 1919. I was even prepared to coin the term "Black RoX"! I think I'm more disappointed in the loss of comedy potential than at the player.

But seriously, you get yourself banned for life, most of your teammates banned for three years and your team banned for one year for a hundred bucks? I wish I knew enough about DOTA 2 to come up with a suitable failure comparison... somebody help me out here.
 

teebeeohh

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The Rogue Wolf said:
Aww, I was hoping there would be more players and money involved so I could draw parallels to the Black Sox scandal in 1919. I was even prepared to coin the term "Black RoX"! I think I'm more disappointed in the loss of comedy potential than at the player.

But seriously, you get yourself banned for life, most of your teammates banned for three years and your team banned for one year for a hundred bucks? I wish I knew enough about DOTA 2 to come up with a suitable failure comparison... somebody help me out here.
it's burning black hole[or any channelled ulti] without BKB on one hero and getting ganked, resulting in your team losing the 4v5.
it's like towerdiving without mana
it's like getting the donkey killed for a tango
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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Funny.... I saw that and immediately thought of Pete Rose and sho'nuff he got honorable mentions. Or dishonorable.
Still, its stupid to bet against yourself and throw the game, even if it don't matter. Even more amazing to me is the fact that people bet on these games at all.
Amount doesn't matter, its the ethics involved.
 

Eri

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Feb 21, 2009
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It sounds like they threw the match, which is bullshit and not ethical, but-

I think betting against your team is not ethically wrong "just because". Okay, say a person bets against his team but they play their best and they win. Is it now suddenly wrong? No, as long as they play their best, there is no problem. I recognize human nature might make that a problem for most, but statistically and logically speaking there is nothing wrong with it.
 

Daaaah Whoosh

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I used to be in a Halo war simulator, and there was one battle where everyone on the enemy team bet against themselves using the site's currency, then used their winnings to buy perks for the next battle. Then they all changed their signatures to a picture of a Spartan with a 'umad bro?' face. That's what this reminds me of.
 

Candidus

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Andy Chalk said:
Just as an addendum, JoinDota has backed the ban. This means "Solo" has received a lifetime ban from all JoinDota e-sports leagues as well, including The Defense, Eizo Cup, jD Masters, as well as others (JD means a `lot` of tournaments).

Edit: The above bans aren't instated yet. It's planned to bring them in when no further investigation is taking place, assuming the charges stick at that time.

As someone who remembers the great Broodwar match fixing scandal pretty well, I'm happy to see Solo banned from virtually all things DOTA 2.

Throwing a game like that is basically theft from everyone who bets on you; many of whom will have been your fans. Just for that alone, you can't be punished hard enough in my view.
 

MeowZhuxi

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The most annoying thing about this whole scandal is that you can't go into a dota 2 twitch chat or forum without seeing hundreds of 322 references. But seriously, the whole thing was just stupid and seems like an incredibly risky move for such a small payoff.
 

Micalas

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I don't always get perma-banned, but when I do, it's for $222 of profit.

He is...the most interesting man in the world!