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The history of DOTA2 is full of events that will leave you awestruck. Be it historic plays like EG’s comeback, Navi’s “The Play”, Liquid’s dream run or embarrassing, scandalous and shameful moments of the professional scene, the history of DOTA2 has seen it all. Let’s take a look back at some of the Broken Updates, Infamous blunders and shameful events of match-fixing.
Match-Fixing and Intentional Throws are a shameful part of any competitive game. Here is two of the most infamous example of match-fixing in the history of DOTA2.
#322
On June 16th, 2013 StarLadder handed Solo a lifetime ban for intentionally throwing and betting fraud against zRage. Just 14th, 2013, Even though ROX.KIS was favorite they lost the game against zRage in a suspicious way. Questionable engagements, buyback and the whole play throughout the game were suspicious. The match was later investigated by StarLadder officials and as a result, a shocking news came out that Alexei “Solo” Berezin intentionally thrown the match against zRage after placing a bet against his own team. The investigators traced his IP Adress back from the bating website. Solo publicly apologized for his actions and admitted the fact that he placed a hundred dollar bet against his own team. On June 21st ROX removes Solo from their roster. Even though StarLadder handed him a lifetime ban for the act but ended up reducing the ban to one year following his apology. Solo’s winning from the bet would have totaled $322 dollars. And the community instantly made the number 322 a popular meme. Even now if someone is playing so bad that it's almost suspicious, it’s called 322.
#Arrow Gaming Scandal
A year later another Match-Fixing scandal took place that ended with way worse consequences. In October 2014 South East Asia’s Synergy League, the heavily favorite Arrow Gaming lost against Australian team Can’t Say Wisp (CSW), following the event DOTA2 Lounge started an investigation on the match. The investigation revealed several bets placed by individuals associated with the team, leading Arrow Gaming to be disqualified from the tournament. Further investigation proved that the bets were placed from the accounts of the girlfriend of DDZ and Lance, resulting these two players receiving a lifetime ban from the event. Arrow Gaming protested for the player’s innocence and provided chat logs and statements regarding the situation, however, the logs were proved manipulated and the statements false. As a result, Synergy League extended the ban to Arrow Gaming’s entire organization. As a result of this controversy, Arrow Gaming’s lineup and all the players were removed from the Summit’s qualifier. Soon after the incident, DDZ took Facebook to publicly apologize on behalf of the players. Let’s take a look at what he has to say,
“The purpose of writing this is to clarify about the 322 incident.
But firstly, we, the 5 members of Arrow Gaming as well as XiaoTing and Hishiko (DDZ and Lance’s girlfriends), would like to sincerely apologize to the organizers, Synergy League and BeyondTheSummit, and to our fans as well as the Dota 2 community for all the trouble we have caused.
Firstly, we want to admit that the 322 by DDZ and Lance is true, and we are very sorry for this mistake. We considered doing it in the first place because we were desperate for money. We live in the city, and being underpaid, things are just very tough and harsh on us sometimes. We are very very sorry for this action and we should have never done it.
We were very afraid and lost, and didn’t know what to do and how to react. And thus, we approached our management for help and we were advised to cover up for the sake of our reputation. We knew this was wrong but we felt extremely pressured to follow whatever our manager Jaren Gan, said, as we are working for him.
The statement, as well as the ‘evidence’ provided, that was made in DDZ’s name, was not written by him, but by Jaren for damage control. We know this is wrong and it made things even worse by covering up a mistake with lies. We should not have let it happen.
We are also sorry for not confessing earlier, and also very sorry for letting all our fans and the Dota 2 community down. We are deeply sorry for not following our hearts and just doing what is right, because we were afraid and terrified of what would happen to us. Gaming is our life and we were afraid that we would lose everything because of our greed and desperation.
But no matter what it is, we accept 100% the punishment and consequences that is to be made to us, and we give our word and our promise that this will never happen again. It was an extremely stupid mistake, and we made it worse by doing something we knew was wrong instead of admitting it straight away. We have finally found the courage to admit it and to confess because we know that lies will only lead to more lies and we will never find peace of mind. We believe that telling people the truth and admitting our mistakes, even if it may be too late, is the right thing to do.
We are also very sorry that we were too stupid to realize how unethical it was… we are sorry for everything that we have done. We have betrayed our fans’ trust and faith in us, and we will never forgive ourselves. We hope that you can forgive us even after all we’ve done. Thank you. - Kok Yi "ddz" Liong”
As DDZ’s post exposed Arrow’s organization and the manager Jaren Gan, the manager threatened to sue Lance and DDZ for $8000 dollar for breach of contract if they don’t take back their confession. Arrow Gaming ended up releasing the entire roster. But that was not the end, on March 28th, 2015 Valve stepped in handing a permanent ban to all former members of Arrow Gaming including xianzai, MtR, MoZuN.
#Team Secret Internal Scandal
Since 2014 Team secret has always been a controversial organization. From public roster disputes to hostile team environment (apparently throwing PCs at each other), Team Secret could not keep their name out of the news. Even going back to their inaugural roster with star players like Kuroky and NoTail, the drama has always been a part of the Team Secret.
From NoTail’s and Fly’s bitter removal to W33 and Misery’s very public exits, changing roster has always been a problem for captain Puppey and rest of the Team Secret Organization. Not only the roster disputes but Team Secret were apparently blamed for more. From their former manager to recent players, everyone spoke against Team Secret about not paying the players timely or missing tournament winning prize money. Eternal Envy accused Team Secret of not only paying him the money but also abusing the players. Eternal Envy claimed that the organization was removing 10% of all tournament winnings without previous concern. Misery claimed the same against Team Secret. Despite being one of the strongest team, Secret has yet to prove their name as an established organization without controversies.
While there are other examples of match-fixing in DOTA2, Arrow Gaming scandal and Solo’s 322 are the most memorable.
Broken Updates and Bugs are part of any game. Sometimes they are funny and sometimes they are so broken they cause outrage in the gaming community. Let’s take a look back at the most broken updates and bugs in the history of DOTA2.
#Chen-Roshan Bug
Bugs come and go. While there were a lot of bugs in DOTA2, some remain memorable for how broken or ridiculous they were. In patch 6.75 Chen’s abilities received a minor tweak. Holy Persuasion no longer had the ability to teleport friendly unit back to base. Instead Test of Faith granted a secondary ability to teleport allied units. In this process, something broke in the game. For some reason Holy Persuasion the ability to control creep was working on Roshan. Having Roshan as your ally from minute one in the game with his thousands of HP and abilities would be a bit strong? You’re absolutely right. The discovery spread in a flash and pretty soon pubs were terrified by Chen picks. Within hours of the bug discovery, Valve issued a Hotfix ending Chen’s reign of terror. Until today the bug remains the most hilarious and broken bug in the history of DOTA2.
#The Venge Aura Bug
Bugs can be Game-Breaking but there’s one particular bug that stands for literally breaking the Game. In patch 6.81 Vengeful Spirit received a buff. As the patch note said, “When Vengeful spirit is slain, her killer is inflicted with a negative vengeance aura, which decreases the damage of her killer and their nearby allies until she revives.”
Unfortunately, the buff caused a bug to crash the game and force everyone out of the lobby if the debuff were applied to any non-player, such as a tower. The bug was exploited almost instantly ruining countless games. A lot of players intentionally committed suicide to prevent the loss. The issue was hotfixed by Valve within a day of discovery.
#Introducing Centaur to DOTA2
The introduction of Centaur in DOTA2 was a disaster. Broken hero releases are part of any MOBA and DOTA2 owns arguably the most discussed and Broken Hero Release of all time. He was the unkillable level of tanky, dealt disgusting damage and could chain stun enemies on his own. His first day in the game had a win rate over 67% and he was a nightmare to play against. When they were bringing Centaur from DOTA to DOTA2 they changed his ultimate ability. Gave him a global short-cooldown spell that increases movement speed and stuns enemies upon contact instead of gaining flat health. Things were so bad that just 4 days later Centaur was nerfed. The hero was finally brought back into line. Watching centaur wrecking 5 heroes alone was a pretty funny experience.
#Fountain Hook
Fountain hook is undoubtedly the most discussed and famous bug in DOTA. Chen’s teleportation and Pudge’s Meat Hook created a massive game breaking bug. A bug which was used to hook enemy heroes to the ally fountain. Natus Vincere against Tongfu found their back against the wall in crucial The International Championship match. There was no possible way for Na’Vi to come back in the game, that’s when Dendi and Puppey decided to show the world the endless possibilities of DOTA. As Puppey, Chen kept teleporting Dendi back to ally base, Dendi on his Pudge kept landing Hooks after Hooks after Hooks. Resulting Tongfu to lose the game after Dendi hooked enemy Gyrocopter with Aegis. Brilliant, Hilarious, Game breaking, no matter what you call it the “Fountain Hook” remains one of the most iconic moments in the history of DOTA2. However, Valve patched the bug out of the game but until today fountain hooks remain the only bug to be used in a game of The International.
