At least 10 players received the ban hammer from Valve via tournament organizer PGL. The permanent ban will immediately take effect and disallow them from participating in Dota 2 tournaments. Reports say that the decision was made after the players were found guilty of cheating and violating rules during the open qualifiers for the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023: Tour 1.
Among the players who got banned is Virtus.pro’s Koma. PGL posted on its official Twitter account saying that the punishment came into existence as a result of “account sharing and impersonating members of other teams during tournament games.”
Familiar Faces in the Dota 2 Community
Here is the full list of Dota 2 players recently banned by Valve due to the aforementioned violations:
- Aslan “Paradise” Vadilov
- Danil “illusion” Grzhevka
- Bisembaev “lilskrip” Bauyrzhan
- Kamil “Koma`” Biktimirov
- Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko
- Kirill “deihra” Haritonov
- Daminov “keintseru” Emil
- Viktor “SuperNova” Galichkin
- Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin
Some of these players are actually well-known up-and-rising pros in the Dota 2 community from the Tier 2 scene. Perhaps the most unexpected name on the list is Kamil “Koma” Biktimirov, who just signed with Virtus.pro and was supposed to be part of the upcoming DPC season. Just when the esports team thought it had gotten itself out of controversies, a new one arrived thanks to the 20-year-old Russian player. It is worth noting though that the account sharing violation Koma was found guilty of took place before he signed with the organization.
Virtus.pro Released Statement
Virtus.pro said that they immediately conducted an internal investigation after knowing about the ban Valve gave on the newly-signed Dota 2 carry player Koma. The organization also promised to share more details soon.
Nikolai Petrossian, CEO of Virtus.pro, said that they are “shocked and saddened” after seeing one of their players on the list. Petrossian added that the organization is built on “fair play, integrity, and sportsmanship,” values that he himself believes in.
Valve also released a ban wave in March this year, involving Dota 2 players from both Team Apex and Team Orca who were implicated in another account-sharing scandal. Players from Team Orca were said to have used Apex’s accounts to play the open qualifiers in the DPC.
