The ESL One Raleigh qualifiers ended in a major scandal. The community discovered that NAVI Junior players had been abusing a now-patched Dota 2 bug that allowed them to detect whether the enemy team had used Smoke of Deceit. The story might have ended there, but it soon became clear that NAVI Junior were not alone in gaining an unfair advantage. ESL started an investigation and, after a week, released its final verdict.

According to ESL, a staggering seventeen (!) teams were caught using the bug. Some teams triggered it only once and unintentionally, while others abused it dozens of times. Three teams were disqualified: 9Pandas (160 instances of bug abuse), NAVI Junior (115 times), and Aurora Gaming (50 times). Seven teams received fines, while the rest didn't receive significant punishment.

The ruling raises some serious ethical and competitive integrity questions. Why weren’t all teams caught using the bug multiple times disqualified? How many instances are considered too many? Why is the judgment based on the number of times the exploit was used rather than the fact that cheating occurred at all? ESL’s decision leaves room for debate, but it’s clear that this was a no-win situation where any outcome would have its share of controversy.

Main image: dota2.com

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