At the beginning of 2022, Vietnamese Esports players made international headlines once again, but this time in a negative light within the DOTA 2 scene. Specifically, during the DPC tournament in the SEA region, Team Apex faced off against Chubby Boiz, led by Thầy Tề. During the match, noticing suspicious behavior from the opponents, such as their gameplay style and item builds, Chubby Boiz suspected that cheating was taking place and reported it to the DPC organizers.
After the DPC organizers investigated, the situation confirmed the accusations from Chubby Boiz: Team Apex had indeed allowed players from Team Orca to use their accounts to compete. Moreover, Team Orca later confirmed this incident, admitting they had “bribed” to use Team Apex players’ accounts to manipulate the results.
The DPC organizers issued an immediate punishment: a permanent ban on all members of both Team Apex and Team Orca from all Valve tournaments. Among the players receiving this punishment were two familiar names in the Vietnamese DOTA 2 scene: Bùi “Hunghung” Văn Hùng and Nguyễn “Datbb” Thành Đạt.
It’s needless to say, the Vietnamese DOTA 2 community expressed immense disappointment as once again, Vietnamese players in this game have been involved in match-fixing scandals. Remember the infamous case of Misa during his time with Aces Gaming that made headlines abroad? Now, Misa’s juniors like Hunghung and Datbb have “followed in his footsteps.”
Furthermore, for fans of the legend Dendi – considered a monument of DOTA 2 similar to Faker in LOL, the name Datbb undoubtedly brings back many memories. Specifically, during a match against Dendi’s Tigers in 2019, Datbb directly insulted the legendary Dendi in chat after the game. Fortunately for Datbb, this incident passed quickly, and none of the Tigers players, including Dendi, understood Vietnamese. However, within the Vietnamese DOTA 2 community, many fans harshly criticized Datbb, even calling for his removal from 496 Gaming.
At a time when Vietnamese Esports is making significant waves on the international stage, once again, professional players have disappointed their fans. Perhaps, the day when Vietnamese Esports can match the level of China, Korea, or the West is still far off if there are still “rotten apples” like this.