Earlier today, reports on reddit emerged in which players from the Philippine teams Mineski and MSI have been accused of matchfixing. Both teams issued a statement that they will investigate the matter. However, a reliable source informed GosuGamers that the accusations hold truth to them.
In the Dota2Loungebets subreddit, a post has been submitted including serious allegations towards the pro teams Mineski and MSI. Shown are screenshots from a conversation between Michael Vincent Vallejos and Jonathan Radores. Vallejos is the owner of a large betting page called "MyDota2Community", wheras Radores is a former pro player that has already been involved in a scamming scandal before in which former Mineski player Julz has been accused of scamming multiple keys. He later explained that it was Radores that was responsible for that act.
In this case however, Radores and Vallejos are accused of collaborating and fixing matches that had no impact on the overall outcome of the tournament, namely the StarLadder 10 match between Mineski and MSI. In these screenshots (credit to the reddit user ConcernPHCitizien for providing and translating them) the conversations show the planning of the alleged matchfixing, in which a "mispick" was supposed to happen. MSI was supposed to draft a shaky, if not completely bad line-up. Also mentioned was a Tinker pick for the Mineski team, which in fact did happen and Mineski ended up winning the game in question. Another screenshot shows that players supposedly even asked for money.
MSI has stated on their Facebook that they "anyone can print screen any conversation of two people talking about our players but that doesn't necessarily mean its true. We trust and know our players". In an earlier statement, they also questioned the validity of these screenshots as "It's the 21st century and photo editing can be done by almost anyone".
GosuGamers however has received a tip from a person close to players and teams that the accusations in fact are true and that the match fixing took place. The source would like to clarify that only a portion of Mineski's team is responsible for the matchfixing and the organization is not involved. As for MSI, it is unclear how many people are involved, but judging from the screenshots provided it seems as if player Patrick 'JyC' Pascua seems to be involved. For obvious reasons, the source wishes to remain anonymous. It should also be noted that we cannot provide definite proof at this point.
Upon checking up on our own bets, we found two GGnet accounts that both only placed one key bet in their entire history and both on this exact match between Mineski and MSI. Both accounts were created on the day of the match, won their bets and were able to withdraw over 70 keys each. Furthermore, two other accounts who were able to withdraw a similar amount of keys, with a total of only two key bets to their name. All accounts are from the Philipines and while none of them can be linked to any particular person, it adds up to the theory. (UPDATE: After a tip of one of our readers, we checked another match-up including a Mineski match vs. Immunity that showed similar suspicious behaviour, i.e. accounts placing only a single bet in their history and no actvitiy since)
Both Mineski and MSI have yet to provide an update on their investigations and we will keep you updated once they have concluded these.
Source: Reddit, MSI on Facebook, Mineski.net