Real-life Bounty Rune: Dota 2 pros name the stars they would ban from The International

The content pieces running between matches were hit or miss during Dota 2’s The International 2023, but a few bits did force players to answer some hard-hitting questions such as which player they would ban from playing in the event if given the chance—with Team Spirit getting the brunt of the focus. 

While the short was filmed before the playoffs began on Oct. 20, the entire first section of the video is dedicated to some of the best Dota players in the world independently saying they would ban Yatoro from competing if given the chance. And, given that he was the driving force behind Spirit’s eventual TI12 win, they are completely validated in that pick. 

In total, Cr1t-, Topson, Gunnar, MieRo, niu, zai, and Save- all chose Yatoro to ban. That was followed by a number of players and Shopify Rebellion coach BuLba saying they would ban Collapse because he is such a strong player—with BuLba also noting he would like to replace him with Slacks.

Yatoro was featured later in the video saying he would like Topson to be banned, simply because of his behavior when the two meet in pubs. “He is my personal hater, I guess,” Yatoro said. “In pubs, he [is] always following me, sacrificing his soul. But he kills me, and he’s happy.”

Similarly, Insania said he would like to ban Quinn for his well-documented “poor behavior in public matchmaking, which was a decision backed by Timado, 

Some other strategic bans included Yamsun from nouns banning BetBoom’s Pure so he wouldn’t need to lane against him, while Fishman opted to ban Sneyking from Tundra, stating that without their captain “Tundra will have zero chance.” Little did Enitity know that even with Sneyking, the reigning TI champions would fall in the first round of the playoffs. 

From there it was mostly jokes, including fng banning his Virtus.pro teammate Noticed, Nightfall dropping gpk for smurfing, and Evil Geniuses’ Panda saying he would ban Chris Luck, refusing to elaborate, and then replacing him with a clone of their team’s offlaner Wisper. TOfu, being the ultimate kind soul, even offered to ban himself instead of another player. 

Not many Chinese players were selected, but TSM coach MoonMeander said he would ban Lou so that Ame could join up with Somnus, chalice, and fy again and potentially get his first Aegis.  

While all of those answers were strategically sound or completely absurd, Kingrd gave the most thoughtful pick, deciding to ban Arteezy so he would not get sad upon being eliminated from TI12. 

“He’s going to feel sad there, right?” Kingrd said. “So it is better to not have Arteezy right now. I gotta save him. Of course.”

If some of these bans went through for TI12,  Arteezy would have been saved from another early TI exit, we would have seen two Wispers running through EG’s lanes, and Spirit definitely wouldn’t have won the tournament without its two-star players. Instead, the former and latter did happen, while Panda is left hoping for a day Dota players can be cloned.