The latest drama affecting the Dota community is a scandal in which a Herald 5 has seemingly purchased an account to play in top 50 matches
The Account Buying Scandal
As revealed in a Brian “BananaSlamJamma” Canavan video on his YouTube channel, there is currently an account buyer in high level European pubs. The Immortal account, which was ranked top 50, was allegedly purchased by a Herald 5 player who has now gone on a remarkable losing streak.
In his video BananaSlamJamma highlighted the account's losing streak of 17 games. Defeat is obviously not ideal, but the account buyer has played alongside the likes of Cr1t, Dendi and even Paparazi, who has been unable to return home after TI due to new restrictions.
While account buyers are not incredibly uncommon, it is rare for such a top tier account to get into the hands of a novice. As a result people started to dig into who owned the account in the first place.
Bought account previously used by Virtus Pro's gpk and DM
This is where the story gets interesting. The account, according to Dotabuff, was a smurf account that Danil "gpk" Skutin, the midlaner for Virtus Pro used . Also, according to Dotabuff, VP’s offlaner Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin also used the account and it is presumed to have been shared by the other VP players.
Virtus Pro said their players did not "conduct improper financial transactions with accounts"
On November 10th, Virtus Pro said on social media that allegations that their players were involved in account buying were unfounded.
"We are saddened by the situation when a shadow falls on our players because of vague allegations, so we conducted our own investigation," said Virtus Pro.
"There is no reason to assume current VP players conduct improper financial transactions with accounts," said VIrtus Pro. "We urge the community to judge the credibility of rumors and anonymous tips. Such topics and scandals work only for esports media traffic, nothing else."
Not the first incident
Despite Virtus Pro being saddened by the allegations, it is not the first controversy to befall this VP team, especially gpk. Gpk has been notorious in his pub games for breaking items and buying shadow amulets. So much, so, the VP twitter account made a meme about it.
VP's social media team took down the tweet after several commentators and fans, including analyst and TI winner Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling called them out.
The account purchased GORBI, has nearly lost every single game it has played. In BSJ’s video, the account had a 17-game loss streak.
The Dota community was not happy with this development. It obviously ruined some pub games for top-tier players, but it also opened up discussions about a potential buying scheme from professional players.
Talent and Players Malign Account Buying
A few commentators have weighed in on the issue. Maurice “KheZu” Gutmann, former coach and now captain of Quincy, had perhaps the sternest words about account buying. Though he didn’t name anyone in particular he called Valve out for not holding pro players accountable and hinted at the team involved in the scandal.
Former coach and now analyst Robson “TeaGuvnor” Merrit also expressed disappointment with the situation. He thinks that anyone selling or buying accounts should be banned, regardless of if they are a pro player or just a normal member of the Dota community.
Time will tell to see if there is any investigation by Valve, or if anything more will come from this situation. For more Dota 2 news and everything esports, check us out on esports.gg.