Starladder TV, a competitive esports network, has announced the immediate ban of two DotA 2 players after they were caught fixing games, in order to receive a payout. But this wasn't even some shady offer from a nefarious individual, they just got caught betting against themselves.

According to Joindota, Aleksey “Solo” had placed a $100 bet on his team to lose with egamingbets.com, earning him $322 when his team lost. Proof came in the form of payout information to Solo's Webmoney account and through personal information of the player on the egamingbets site.

This led to the organisation initially handing out very hefty bans to not only the two players involved, but also to the entire team. It issued a lifetime ban to Solo and a three year ban to all teammates and even banned the organisation they play under for a year.

Taking a dive and tower diving are two totally different things – Source: PCGamer

However, the group in question, roX.KIS came out very shortly after claiming foul play and pointed to the fact that the egamingbets information on their player(s) was invalid and that anyone could send money to a Webmoney account if they have the address. “We think that the evidence base is very uncertain in this case. We've been able to insist on more thorough investigation of the incident and we believe in the innocence of our players and staff, and in adequate solution on the case,” read their public statement.

In the wake of evidence that supports the innocence of players, Starladder has now recalled the bans and will perform further investigation. However, it did say that if any evidence that backed up initial claims was found, it would reinstate the bans and close the issue.

KitGuru Says: Considering the prize pots for a lot of the major DotA 2 tournaments can be well over $2 million at this point, does anyone else think it seems unlikely that someone would risk having a shot at that for a few hundred bucks?

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