“Any tampering with the outcome of a game is a permaban, but I’m a big proponent on second chances” – Synderen on Taiga’s potential punishment

A week ago, the Dota 2 scene was bombarded with a shocking exposé involving OG's former position 4, Tommy "Taiga" Le. He has been accused of matchfixing at the highest levels of competitive Dota 2. Now what comes next and what will Valve do about the situation? Dota 2 talents, Shannon "SUNSfan" Scotten and Troels Lyngholt "syndereN" Nielsen, discussed the issue in the latest episode of the We Say Things podcast.

You can watch the full We Say Things podcast episode below.

Taiga's matchfixing case has been a major shock to the Dota 2 community as he is one of the best Dota 2 players in his role. He has a Major title on his belt, a top 6 placement at TI 2022, and a victory at the ESL One Kuala Lumpur. The Norwegian player is exceptionally skilled and well decorated. But there were multiple moments in pro games where he did questionable misplays. Now all that are piled on top of hard evidences like chat logs and recordings. Despite this case still technically being unconfirmed, the evidences are incredibly damning.

Matchfixing has always been an inexcusable offense not only in Dota 2 but in any competitive scene. There is a long list of Valve-banned Dota 2 players and most of them were entangled in matchfixing cases.

SUNSfan highlighted that matchfixers would typically throw an entire game and Taiga 'merely' fed first bloods. Indeed according to the evidences provided by Morf, Taiga has never threw an entire match and only gave first bloods to the opponent twice. Most of the bets are done via scrim information and Taiga commanding his team to aggressively take first blood instead. His betting partner, Sensibility, has pressured Taiga multiple times to throw a map but Taiga refused every time.

Due to Taiga's relatively light matchfixing offense, SUNSfan wonders about the possible punishment and asked if Valve works in binary or if there is a threshold to matchfixing. To this, Synderen responds believing in the former though he personally advocates for second chances.

"I think from [Valve's] perspective, any tampering with the outcome of a game is a permaban. I'm pretty sure that is their stance on that. I can respect that perspective and I know a lot of people support it but I'm a pretty big proponent on second chances," Synderen expressed his thoughts on the Taiga matchfixing case.

At the time of writing, there are no development to Taiga's matchfixing allegations. We do not know if there is currently an investigation by Valve and Taiga himself has been radio silent regarding the issue. If somehow the case goes cold, what happens to Taiga?

Taiga is currently a part of a South American team, LEVIATAN. The team last played in the PGL Wallachia qualifier on March 27th and there is no tournament in queue as for now. LEVIATAN has not released any statements and they might continue playing with Taiga in the team.

In the We Say Things podcast, SUNSfan stated, "Even if he wasn't (banned) I wonder who would play with him knowing this (case). Lets just say there is no repercussions right now. Over time, like we saw with Solo, people will play with you eventually. But the short term, that's going to be hard to even find anybody."

SUNSfan mentions Solo, a Russian veteran player who is the only player caught matchfixing yet escaping punishment. Following his matchfixing case, Solo continued to play and even thrived in the pro scene, especially during his days with Virtus.pro.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates.