Dota 2 pro player Oleg "LastHero" Demidovich who’s also the offlaner for Dendi’s team B8 was arrested and incarcerated during the protests in Belarus.
We don’t usually hear a whole lot about politics from esports players. We all remember how Blizzard sealed the Blitzchung controversy among other examples. These are really interesting times we live in as protests rage worldwide from the USA to Europe. Hundreds of thousands are protesting in Belarus against the government and president Alexander Lukashenko.
One of the protesters is Oleg "LastHero" Demidovich and he went through what most protesters hope they never have to. The Dota 2 pro player was reportedly arrested, beaten, and incarcerated. LastHero shared his unpleasant experience during one of his team’s (B8) official podcasts.
Demidovich explained that he went out to see a friend, but both of them were captured by police officers. Some time later, his team tried to find more information about his location.
If you have any additional information about Oleg's exact location or condition, please let us know. dota2@b8esports.ggAt the moment, all the information we know is set out below. pic.twitter.com/JOsYrfvKhd
— B8 (@B8esportsGG) August 12, 2020
Here’s Oleg’s story in his own words from the podcast above:
They just zip-tied our hands and threw us face-first in a police vehicle, I got kicked in the face once. They asked me to unlock my phone and asked for the password. I told them I wasn’t giving it to them. That’s why they started hitting me I think.They mostly hit me on the back, on the liver, rarely on the head. Sometimes on the legs. They put us in zip ties again, they were so tight that your hands would go numb. Then it turned out they just put us against the wall and we were like that for about 3 hours in the heat, they beat us again with batons on the back and neck several times. They asked us questions, like who we voted for.
LastHero was later incarcerated and beaten a total of five times during that period. Three days later he got released, but he still had to face a trial yesterday. While in custody, Demidovich met Anton Lyadov, a Russian journalist famous for reporting on the most oppressive governments. Ironically, it wasn’t North Korea but Belarus that proved to be the most dangerous one so far. You can find more about Lyadov’s story below. Are there protests in your country?
In the meantime, Demidovic has managed to recover from his injuries so we’ll probably see him back in action soon. The player joined B8 on June 6, replacing the team’s previous offlaner Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk. In fact, on the same date, B8 changed three more players, leaving only Danil “Dendi” Ishutin from the original roster. Here’s the full squad:
- Remco "Crystallis" Arets
- Danil "Dendi" Ishutin
- Oleg "LastHero" Demidovich
- Enis "5up" Elfki
- Dmitriy "Fishman" Polishchuk
So far, the team has struggled to make a name for themselves, but maybe that’s all about to change.
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