Earlier this week, Valve banned pro Dota 2 players for account sharing. Now, some of the pros are asking Valve to loosen up.
Developers gave out 10 lifetime bans on December 18 after a thorough investigation found the players guilty of account sharing in official matches. This included top players like Kamil “Koma” Biktimirov and Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin.
The pros are now asking Valve to reduce the sentence.
Dota 2 pros speak out after getting permanently banned
A day after getting permanently banned for account sharing, Koma came forward about the situation. He admitted to making some bad choices and listening to the wrong people, which led to him playing an official match with another account. Koma also stated that he hid the behavior from Virtus.pro when applying to be on the team. He apologized to Virtus.pro fans for his actions but asked Valve for some mercy.
“I am 20 years old, Dota is my whole life, and now it is put to rest. And I have no one to blame except myself. I agree, there should be a punishment for my mistake, but I will ask Valve to reduce the ban. I want to believe in the best, but I will accept any choice Valve makes,” Koma stated.
Limitless also shared his thoughts and feelings on the permanent ban, stating that it was a “stupid mistake” made out of greed and money struggles. He also added that Illusion, another permanently banned pro, had his account used without his knowledge due to ongoing internet issues in Ukraine.
Valve has yet to respond to either of the pros’ statements.
Virtus.pro’s CEO, Nikolai Petrossian, did respond to the ban, however. He expressed sadness at seeing Koma’s name on the list, stating that “fair play, integrity, and sportsmanship” are values that VP is built on. A follow-up tweet seemed to imply that Petrossian agreed with Koma’s punishment.
Valve has been quite consistent with its guidelines, regulations, and bans thus far. The esports rules have an entire section on competitive integrity, which can be read here.
So far, the 10 players are still permanently banned.
