Evidence sheds light on allegations of match-fixing by Holy Grail at TI12 China Qualifier

Match-fixing continues to run rampant in the corners of the Dota underworld, this time reportedly involving a Chinese team by the name of Holy Grail. Jie Chu Ge, a Bilibili content creator who once exposed Knights for cheating in the Chinese Dota Pro Circuit early 2023, released a video today (Nov. 13) that allegedly showed Holy Grail engaging in match-fixing during The International 2023 (TI12) China Qualifier.

In his video discussing Holy Grail's match fixing scandal, Jie Chu Ge played recordings of the team's voice chat. These recordings were of Holy Grail's communications during the TI12 China Qualifier. In collaboration with Chinese Dota community ambassadors and members David Shi and CN Dota in a Nutshell, esports.gg was able to acquire a translation on some of the information from the voice recordings within Jie Chu Ge's video.

The recordings were based on Holy Grail's conversations during their TI12 China Qualifier series with Team Disillusioned and Team Bright. Although Jie Chu Ge had access to the full recordings, he only shared a number of clips in his video. One of the things mentioned was regarding how payouts from betting sites would be distributed among the players and management.

They also talked about certain actions players must make in game such as losing at the 35-minute mark. Even more harrowing was that they talked about threatening Jie Chu Ge's life were he to expose Holy Grail for their actions.

Additionally, one player reportedly talked about distributing money, referring to a 70-30 split. Given the TI qualifier did not have prize money, it wasn't clear to Jie Chu Ge where this money was coming from.

Although the evidence currently points toward Holy Grail as the main perpetrator, Team Disillusioned and Team Bright may potentially have played a part as well. Match-fixing comes in many different shapes and forms other than simply throwing games. Betting sites usually offer payouts for varying occurrences within a game such as a team taking certain actions within a set period of time, such as kills, first tower, etc. Therefore, teams may work together to rig the match while their collaborators gamble on betting sites, receive the payouts and distribute the winnings.

For instance, beginning from the 30-minute mark of the video, Jie Chu Ge explained the irrational moves that the Holy Grail players made during their game against Team Disillusioned. It was 36 minutes into the game, Holy Grail had a 12k gold advantage and the opportunity to push high ground from the bottom lane. However, they decided to make a move to Roshan exactly at the same time as Team Disillusioned did. Holy Grail then engaged in a team clash and ended up losing. This, among other instances that Jie Chu Ge later explained, warranted his suspect.

Jie Chu Ge added that he was quite certain of Team Bright and Team Disillusioned's alleged involvement in Holy Grail's match-fixing scandal. For now, Jie Chu Ge had already reported his findings to Perfect World to investigate the situation further.

Holy Grail has applied and will be playing at the upcoming ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 China Open Qualifiers. Although information on the brackets and schedules are limited, the draft sheet above indicates Holy Grail as one of the registered rosters. It will be playing with the exact same lineup from the TI12 China Qualifier. The Holy Grail roster is as follows:

Team Bright and Team Disillusioned (now Dark Horse) have also registered for the qualifiers with the same lineup except for Team Bright's position one player and Dark Horse's position four player.

Jie Chu Ge still went on to release his video despite knowing the potential threats for exposing Holy Grail's actions. His video, now shared in tens of thousands, reached a number of key Chinese Dota 2 casters. The following are what some of these casters had to say about this matter:

This a developing story. We will update you with more details as soon as they are released. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more updates!