Dota 2’s poster boy accused of match-fixing by former teammate

Danil “Dendi” Ishutin and his Dota 2 team B8 are facing allegations of match-fixing from former teammate Glib “Funn1k” Lipatnikov. The offlaner released a statement on Twitter on Aug. 14, raising questions regarding the team’s finances and sustainability.

As a Ukrainian organization, B8 has been terribly affected by the ongoing war and had to move operations at the end of 2022. According to Funn1k, he received help from B8 and decided to join for six months as a token of his gratitude.

Related: Ukrainian Dota 2 team manages to retain Division 1 seat while playing NA matches from home

During his time with B8, Funn1k posted a political message on a Dota 2 community forum, prodota.ru, and the player claims he was contacted by B8’s CEO and Dendi shortly after his entry. The two asked Funn1k to take down his post, and the offlaner did it with questions on his mind.

When it was time to get paid, however, Funn1k was told he was scaring investors, and he couldn’t be paid at that moment since he was required to calm down while retaining from making comments online.

With strange events taking place right after another, Funn1k wondered whether B8, a Ukrainian organization on paper, was secretly sponsored by a Russian organization. The legendary offlaner also took his allegations to another level by claiming B8 could also be involved in match-fixing, as he couldn’t explain their poor performance in official matches.

Despite playing well in ranked matches, Funn1k believed that Dendi and two other players, Denis “StoneBank” Korzh and Oleg “Lodine” Kvasha, performed questionably badly with excuses that felt “fake.”

Due to Funn1k’s history of making rather over-the-top claims, many Dota 2 fans disregarded the allegations as a rant, but others raised concerns over topics the community has been curious about for a long time. After forming in 2020, B8 has been consistently unsuccessful in its Dota Pro Circuit campaigns. With zero major qualifications or high-profile tournament wins, a team of B8’s caliber wouldn’t be able to stick together for more than two seasons.

On top of continuing its Dota 2 operations, B8 also expanded to CS:GO in 2021. Fans have been speculating that since B8 doesn’t have official sponsors, it might have a private investor. This also isn’t the first time Funn1k talked badly about B8 and his former teammates. At the beginning of August, the offlaner criticized the organization for not paying DPC players and being “low skill.”