27-year-old Peruvian Steven “StingeR” Vergas had a very bad day. The support player was banned live during a tournament in DOTA 2 (Steam) by Valve. This caused them to lose the tournament. He and his teammates were subsequently fired from their team.
This was the situation:
- The tournament “DreamLeague Season 22: South America Closed Qualifier” was played – here, 8 teams from South America fought for the right to participate in the attractive “DreamLeague” in DOTA 2.
- Support player StingeR was one of 3 teams directly invited to the qualifier with his team “Mad Kings.” However, they had already lost their opening match against White Dragons and ended up in the loser’s bracket, where they won their first match.
- But in the 3rd game of the qualifiers against “Thunder Awaken,” StingeR was banned by Valve in the middle of the match. His team automatically lost and was eliminated.
Pro player allegedly “boosted” by his own teammate
Why was he banned? The ban against StingeR had been looming in the days leading up to the match. Community members accused StingeR of having another player play on his behalf to boost his account (via reddit).
The second player is David “Parker” Nicho Flores, another team member of Mad Kings.
While it has not been officially confirmed whether StingeR was banned for this reason, it is assumed within the community.
This boosting
was seen as repulsive behavior
in the community.
matchmaking ratingensures that players are matched with opponents and teammates of roughly equal strength. However, if a player uses another’s account to play (
smurfs), who has a lower ranking, they compete against significantly weaker players. This is generally considered unfair.
Ban in the middle of the tournament even confuses the casters
This was the reaction: StingeR was banned in the middle of the tournament, at the 10-minute mark in the 2nd game. After the ban, he could no longer log into DOTA 2. The ban resulted in an automatic loss for his team and elimination.
The clip of the live ban during the tournament and how the casters discussed it can be seen on Twitch. Apparently, everyone was surprised by the situation. The casters said that such a ban in the middle of a game had never happened before.
As Dotesports writes, the ban of StingeR in the middle of a tournament is a clear sign that Valve is serious about their initiative against “smurfs.”
Player and his teammates fired within 24 hours
This was the result: After the ban of the player, he and all his teammates were fired from the team “Mad Kings” within 24 hours. They had formed the team on December 29.
The organization now wants to take a break from esports.
More on the topic of “smurfing” in DOTA 2:
Twitch streamer unbox gift in DOTA 2, gets banned immediately: “Is this for real?”
