On 14th January, former Alliance offlaner Yaroslav “Limitless” Parhsin took to Telegram to share with his fans that ESL responded to his ban appeal and that he would reportedly be allowed to play in ESL tournaments again starting December 2024.
Limitless and nine other players, including Team Spirit’s content creator and former Virtus.pro carry Kamil “Koma`” Biktimirov, were banned indefinitely by Valve in December 2022 for engaging in account sharing and impersonating members of other teams during tournament games, both of which are strictly prohibited in Valve tournaments.
While it could have been a happy moment for those banned players, Dota 2 professionals Oliver “skiter” Lepko of Team Falcons and Quinn “Quinn” Callahan of Gaimin Gladiators spoke against this decision by ESL.
Dota 2 Pros Quinn & Skiter Urge ESL to Reconsider Unban Decision
It has been more than a year since the match-fixing scandal that rocked the Dota 2 Champions League Season 15, resulting in the ban of 10 players. Limitless took to Telegram to share that he received an official reply from ESL, confirming his ban would be lifted by December 2024.
The reply from ESL, as shared by Limitless, read, “We honor all publisher bans in our events for 2 years in the case of a first offense. After this time, the players may participate, though second offenses may be punished with lifetime bans from EFG (ESL FACEIT Group) Tournaments also. The ban you refer to would expire, should there be no further reason to extend it, in December 2024. I hope this is clear, and thanks for reaching out.”
On Telegram, Limitless made it clear that this is only with regards to ESL operated tournaments. He added, “Well, in theory, if some allow it, then others can too.”
Team Falcons skiter seemed to strongly oppose this decision taken by ESL. He took to X (Twitter) to voice his concerns about lifting the ban on such players. He wrote, “Letting former matchfixers back into competitive dota hurts the integrity of pro games. I wish ESL gonna backtrack this statement and realize the mistake they are making.”
Seconding this, Gaimin Gladiator’s Quinn also posted on Twitter where he wrote a strongly worded message. He urged ESL to reconsider the decision, calling it “insane and awful” to un-ban these players.
Quinn added, “Artificially altering who wins and loses is literally the cardinal sin of competition and utterly unforgivable. Unbanning then would be completely insane and awful. That trust can never be regained, how can I play vs them knowing they aren’t cheating.”
The list of players who were involved in the match-fixing, impersonation and account sharing and subsequently banned are as follows:
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Aslan “Paradise” Vadilov
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Emil “Keintseru” Daminov
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Victor “SuperNova” Galichkin
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Danil “illusion” Grzhevka
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Bisembaev “Lilskrip” Bauyrzhan
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Kamil “Koma” Biktimirov (also known as aggressive child)
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Vladislav “Chambl” Khorolcev (also known as imba4)
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Yaroslav “Limitless” Parhsin
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Sergey “[T]SA” Timchenko
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Kirill “deihra” Kharitonov
As of now, ESL has made no official announcement regarding this matter and it is still under development.
