Dota 2: Mad Kings drops entire roster after Stinger got banned during a match for account sharing
The ban came into effect during an official qualifier match, which led to Mad Kings receiving a default loss and getting knocked out of the qualifier.
Peruvian organisation Mad Kings dropped its entire Dota 2 roster on Thursday (18 January) and announced an indefinite break from competition after one of its players, Steven "Stinger" Vargas, had his account banned by developer Valve Software in the middle of an official match for account sharing.
Stinger's ban came into effect in game of Mad King's match versus Thunder Awaken in the South American closed qualifier for DreamLeague Season 22 on Wednesday (17 January). As a result of the ban, Mad Kings were handed a default loss that knocked them out of the qualifier.
The ban on Stinger most likely came as a result of Brazilian player Pedro "mini" Paula revealing in a post on the Dota 2 subreddit that Stinger's teammate, David "Parker" Chote, had been playing on his account. Mini also claimed that Parker was playing on Stinger's account to 'boost' it or give it a higher matchmaking rating.
Parker later admitted in a now-deleted tweet that it was indeed him playing on Stinger's account, denying that he was boosting. He also claimed to have not been unable to play on his own account "for reasons" and that he was playing on Stinger's account to practice.
Account sharing, which refers to the act by which a certain player impersonates another and plays on the latter's account in both official and pub matches, is a bannable offense in the Dota 2 competitive scene.
In 2022, 10 Russian and Ukrainian players were notably banned for account sharing and impersonating other players. Two Malaysian teams were also handed bans for account sharing in May last year.
While Mad Kings highlighted in their announcement that Stinger's ban was for account sharing and not boosting, they also said that they recognise and respect the rules established by Valve.
This is just the latest incident in Valve's ongoing crackdown on professional and casual players alike sharing accounts and using smurfs, or the act of creating an alternate account that is often used to play against lower-ranked players and hide their match history.
Last December, Valve even trolled players who were caught smurfing by gifting them a 'lump of coal' alongside their bans during the game's Christmas event. In February of last year, Valve also banned over 40,000 accounts that were found to have used cheats by using a clever 'honeypot' method.
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