Peruvian Dota 2 squad banned for cheating

A South American side long accused of cheating has finally been punished.

Peruvian side Union Gaming received a six-month ban yesterday for watching Twitch streams during a critical Canada Cup match against Team Fire. The decision follows a thorough investigation by the organizers after a photo spread showing the Union Gaming players watching a Dota 2 stream during the match.

While Canada Cup’s decision is the first official ban for the South American organization, its reputation for questionable practices precedes it. As far back as August of 2014, players have accused the team of everything from suspicious pauses to switching out players in the middle of games:

be careful vs union gaming, they try to ghost with their obs in lobby and dc/pause to check streams/strategize

— ixmike88 (@ixmike88) August 21, 2014

Until the Canada Cup investigation, however, these allegations remained unproven in an official sense.

With one North American tournament handing down punishment, the dominoes have begun to fall. Shortly after Canada Cup’s announcement went live on Reddit, joinDOTA summarily dismissed the team from the joinDOTA MLG Pro League. With few sides convinced that Union operates in good faith, there’s little left to do but rebuild its thoroughly broken reputation.