The Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) banned Dota 2 players Leonid “Sonic” Kuzmenkov and Dmitri “Ax.Mo” Morozov from the team Dx on Friday for two years following an investigation into possible match fixing.
The match in question took place Sept. 17 in the CIS qualifier for the World Cyber Arena, which Dx lost 2-0 to Yellow Submarine. Another Dx player, Roman “Scandal” Sadotenkov, reportedly accused his teammates of throwing the match, which prompted an investigation. Dx was disqualified from the event, and Yellow Submarine did not advance out of its group even with the win.
“It is always depressing to see young esports athletes succumb to the temptations that match-fixing presents,” ESIC commissioner Ian Smith said. “But I remain hopeful that this decision will send a powerful deterrent message to esports athletes across the various titles and tournaments — that ESIC are more than happy to follow up questions and concerns around matches, even when those matches do not fall under our existing coverage partnerships. Sportradar’s fully tailored Fraud Detection System was on hand to help us get to the bottom of the betting patterns globally and off the back of that, we have been able to underline our commitment to clean and credible esports.”
The players are banned for two years from competing in any Uprise Champions Cup competitions.
The ESIC investigated the match in conjunction with Sportradar, which also partners with the ESL to monitor the integrity of betting activity about esports events.