Newbee, the team that won The International 2014, is now officially banned from attending Dota 2 events. Valve have made their decision clear.
The Chinese Dota 2 team Newbee was accused of match-fixing earlier this year during the qualifiers for StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3. They were playing against Avengerls and many fans noticed that the match was quite peculiar. Zhang "xiao8" Ning, ex-player and now streamer, even commented that he’ll “eat s*** if this match isn’t fixed”.
Back in May, the team was officially banned from ImbaTV and the CDA. This basically meant that they will never play in another regional tournament.
In response to the accusations and ban, Newbee claimed that they never participated in any fake matches and gambling activities.
On the plus side, Valve didn’t make a statement of their own at that time, giving fans hope that it’s all just a misunderstanding. Yesterday that changed as Newbee was banned from ever competing in Dota 2 events along with the whole roster:
- Xu “Moogy” Han
- Yin “Aq” Rui
- Wen “Wizard” Lipeng
- Yan “Waixi” Chao
- Zeng “Faith” Hongda
Reason: Match fixing.
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) January 3, 2021
If you never thought we’ll see the day a TI-winning organization gets a lifetime ban from Dota 2, well here it is. None of the members from the 2014 lineup remain in the current roster, but there’s still another TI-winner among them - Zeng "Faith" Hongda.
Faith was part of Invictus Gaming in 2012 when the team won the most prestigious Dota 2 event. He’s one of the most experienced players in the scene and it’s a damn shame that he had to go down this way.
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- READ MORE: Dota 2 in 2020: All the Highlights
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