Newbee and Faith banned for life by Valve for matchfixing

Update: Valve has finally followed up on the initial bans on the Chinese team and players.

After the initial scandal hit the Dota 2 scene, the players involved received bans by the Chinese tournament organisations. While the investigators promised to forward all the relevant findings to Valve, the developers had remained silent on the matter for half a year.

Now Valve has also issued lifelong bans against not only the five players but also the organisation Newbee itself.

This marks the first time a former TI-champion like Zeng “Faith” Hongda, who won TI2 with Invictus Gaming, was convicted of matchfixing.

The players banned are:

  • Xu “Moogy” Han
  • Wen “Wizard” Lipeng
  • Yan “Waixi” Chao
  • Yin “Aq” Rui
  • Zeng “Faith” Hongda
Original article from May 15:
A matchfixing scandal has emerged to shake the Dota 2 world. TI4-Champions Newbee have been banned for life by the Chinese Dota 2 Alliance (CDA).

One of the most successful teams in Dota 2 history has been convicted of matchfixing, shocking fans around the world. While none of the winners from 2014 are still on the roster, Newbee support Zeng “Faith” Hongda, TI2-Champion with Invictus Gaming has also been found guilty.

Bans for life

After several suspicious games (e.gl: Avengerls vs Newbee Kiev Minor Qualifiers) emerged, an investigation was launched into the players from Newbee.

The CDA has now announced the results of their several months long investigation on Weibo:

The TI2-Champion has been banned for lifeThe TI2-Champion has been banned for life
The TI2-Champion has been banned for life

After finding enough evidence to confirm the suspicions CDA issued the following sanctions:

  1. Revoking Newbee’s right to participate in any tournament hosted by CDA or Dota 2 Professional League China (DPL).
  2. Manager Feng “Feng” Yiqing is banned from working in any esports-related capacity in all CDA teams.
  3. The players Xu “Moogy” Han, Wen “Wizard” Lipeng, Yan “Waixi” Chao, Yin “Aq” Rui and Zeng “Faith” Hongda have been banned for life from all Dota 2 competitions by CDA, imbaTV and DPL.
  4. As Newbee as organisation has failed to uphold the standards for CDA members they are excluded from the CDA.
  5. Lai “Fonte” Xingyu has not been linked to any of the accusations and is declared innocent of the fixed matches before he joined Newbee’s roster.

According to the CDA and imbaTV (who launched the first investigation), the entire evidence has been forwarded to Valve and the developer will determine further sanctions.

According to reports Newbee began fixing matches after Song “Sccc” Chun and Lu “Fenrir” Chao left at the end of the prior season.

Newbee will file an appeal

Newbee also issued a statement on Weibo in response. While they expressed respect and understanding for CDA’s decision, they stressed out that as an organization they have not enabled match-fixing in any function and even launched their own investigation in February when allegations became public. Unfortunately due to the conditions of the COVID19 pandemic their own investigation found no evidence and Newbee is just as surprised about the entire affair as the rest of the world.
Newbee also stated to reserve the right to sue the players.

The entire scandal shows once more how fragile the Dota 2 scene actually is. Although The International keeps breaking prize pool records year after year, the tier two or three scene is struggling to make ends meet.

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Pictures via Valve, Newbee
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