Austin “Capitalist” Walsh, a commentator for Dota 2, has talked about how players indulge in using map hacks and other unethical practices in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC)
A lot of bans occurred in the Dota 2 scene last year over unethical activities — such as account sharing, match-fixing, and using map hacks — which have corrupted the competitive scene of Dota 2. These allegations have been roaming around the community for the last few months.
Even Knights, a team from China who were participating in the Lima Major of 2023 before getting knocked out with shambolic results, are being scrutinized for such controversies.
After watching the Chinese video explaining the cheating allegations against Chinese Div 1 DPC team Knights, I must say it does look pretty damning… Props to the commentator doing such extensive study. Can’t imagine who else is possibly using such cheats…
— King (@Sneyking1995) January 11, 2023
Austin “Capitalist” Walsh, who is one of the most well-known commentators for Dota 2, spoke up about the cheating issue in Dota 2 competitions while on the 139th episode of the Side Pull Podcast.
According to him, this cheating problem in the DPC has become bothersome. Moreover, he also stated that he has found enough conclusive evidence to support this claim, specifically in South America and South-East Asia.
Capitalist Discusses Cheating in South America and SEA
Cap and Joey “Leafeator” Thimian, the co-host of Side Pull Podcast, spoke up about the cheating allegations that have been going around in the community.
Cap stated that cheating has been “all over the place” in the Dota Pro Circuit, adding that he he had come across multiple examples of such illegal activities even before the very first season was complete.
He went on to say that in SEA, map hacking occurs widely, which he shared some details of:
“I have read and seen most of the evidence and it looks pretty damning, especially the Southeast Asia cheating allegation where you can watch the video. It’s basically accusing map hack and when you go through the player perspective, you can see that he stops moving his mouse because he’s Alt tabbing, and if you watch the VOD, I think there’s a moment where you could see a light like a flashbang goes off in CS:GO. You obviously changed Windows. That’s one pretty damning.”
Cap also elaborated on how teams who played in the DPC in South America’s Division II also allegedly participated in such activities, and stated that more information about the matter will come out soon. He indicated that if these issues have moved upwards into Division I, it would not be surprising.
“There is now a South American cheating allegation, a whole ring it seems like. I read through the details just an hour ago and there was a tweet from Chompix out there. There are definitely more details going to be coming out but it does kind of seem like this is a general ring of betting and match fixing of multiple people involved and multiple teams in the South American DPC Second Division. It’s surprising that Lower Division has this sort of cheating allegations. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in Upper Division in one or two regions.”
The veteran caster explained that this cheating problem has become almost universal in the Dota 2 scene, but also acknowledged that on the plus side, some players are still giving their everything they have to win games the right way.
“But obviously, there are some havens of integrity I think because Dota is still worth a shit ton of money and why would you obviously throw away 10 years of work that you put together for a chance to be able to win a shit ton of money.”
To combat this situation in the DPC, Valve has been working hard for both casual and professional play by banning many players within the last year. After a popular cheating tool became too widespread, Valve used a honeypot to detect the perpetrators before announcing a huge ban wave to boot over 40,000 players from the game.
Make sure you check out our wide range of other Dota 2 content, and you can also get recaps, analysis and more on the Lima Major right here.
