Perma-banned Players Allegedly Spotted in ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 Qualifiers
Cheng “vtFaded” Jia Hao and Wong “Gy” Kok Guan, who were permanently banned, were recently spotted in the ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 qualifiers. Members of the Geek Fam team noticed their presence.
The vtFaded stack, using the name Wizard King, made it to the open qualifier finals. If they had won against Geek Fam, they would have secured a spot in the closed qualifiers.
According to SEA Dota 2 fans on a Nov. 12 Reddit thread, Geek Fam called out vtFaded and Gy as both teams joined the lobby, resulting in Wizard King abandoning the match altogether. After not coming back for the game, Geek Fam was handed a default win, but Wizard King was still allowed to play in the third-place match, where they suffered a devastating loss against IHC Esports.
Valve permanently banned VtFaded and Gy in 2022 after Team Orca was disqualified from the DPC SEA 2021/22 season, Division 2. The players were involved in match-fixing and played in multiple teams under different aliases during an active DPC season.
The players used smurf accounts to remain incognito, but their specific playstyle gave them away. At the top level of competition, players have fixed positions for certain items and habits that make them easily recognizable to others.
Similarly, TI11 winner Neta “33” Shapira was caught by his opponents for illegally standing in for a team in an ESL Turkey tournament in 2017. Despite playing on another account, 33’s item positions and gameplay style gave him away, resulting in a temporary ban from ESL Turkey events.
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ESL might be investigating the presence of the suspected vtFaded squad in the second open qualifiers, so it remains unclear if they will participate. The second round of open qualifiers in SEA begins on Nov. 14, with two additional teams advancing to the closed qualifiers on Nov. 16.