Vintage and DarkMago were confirmed to have participated in match-fixing at the Dota 2 Esports World Cup 2026.
The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has announced that it has imposed a lifetime ban on Juan “Vintage” David Angulo Nicho and a five-year ban on 
Gonzalo “DarkMago” Herrera from participating in all ESIC member events and ESIC-recognised competitive activity due to attempted match-fixing at the Dota 2 Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026 in July.
The sanctions replace earlier provisional suspensions imposed by the ESIC on Vintage and DarkMago when they were first investigated for an “integrity issue” during the Dota 2 EWC 2026. The bans on Vintage and DarkMago were set to have begun on 14 July, with DarkMago's ban scheduled to end on 13 July 2031.
With major tournament organisers like ESL and BLAST being ESIC members, the bans imposed on Vintage and DarkMago effectively ends their participation in esports.
“The sanctions apply across ESIC Member Events and ESIC-recognised competitive activity to the extent the relevant organisations have authority to enforce them. They prohibit participation in covered capacities, including as a player, substitute, coach, analyst, manager, team staff member or support personnel. ESIC Members have been notified of their obligations to recognise and enforce the sanctions, prevent circumvention and report attempted participation,” the ESIC said in its announcement of Vintage and DarkMago's bans.
“This matter reinforces the obligation on participants to report corrupt approaches and information evidencing corrupt conduct without unnecessary delay. Failure to report such information is itself a serious integrity breach, independently of whether a participant actively engages in match manipulation.”
Why did the ESIC impose bans on Vintage and DarkMago?
Vintage and DarkMago were competing as part of 
PlayTime's South American Dota 2 team at the time of the Dota 2 EWC, with Vintage serving as the team's sporting director and coach while DarkMago was part of the active roster as the mid laner.
In the tournament's Survival Stage, PlayTime were scheduled to play against Vici Gaming, only for the match to be indefinitely postponed. Hours later, the ESIC, which served as the integrity partner for EWC 2026, confirmed that it had launched an investigation into “suspected breaches of the ESIC Anti-Corruption Code and Player Code of Conduct” and specifically named Vintage and DarkMago.
PlayTime later forfeited their match then parted ways with Vintage and DarkMago two days after the incident, with the organisation claiming that the management were not involved in any alleged foul play and declared its full cooperation with the ESIC throughout the ongoing investigation.
Following the incident, no information regarding what happened were publicly shared. However, many within the Dota 2 community suspected that it involved match-fixing.
With their announcement of the bans imposed on Vintage and DarkMago, the ESIC also finally shared details of the incident and confirmed earlier suspensions of the two being involved in match-fixing.
According to ESIC, the incident was escalated to them on 13 July following receipt of information concerning a corrupt approach intended to influence competitive performance.
“ESIC undertook an urgent preliminary assessment and, in coordination with the Esports Foundation, imposed provisional suspensions while the investigation continued. The subsequent investigation examined participant and staff interviews, contemporaneous communications, internal team material, participant responses, tournament records, gameplay and draft observations, device and financial information where produced, and multi-source betting intelligence,” the integrity body added.
The ESIC found that Vintage was party to an agreement or effort to cause PlayTime to lose its best-of-two Group Stage match against 
Team Liquid on 7 July by a score of 0-2. Vintage agreed to accept a financial reward connected with the proposed manipulation, and solicited or facilitated another participant’s involvement. That other participant was DarkMago.
That Group Stage match between PlayTime and Liquid saw the latter win game one and the former win game two, resulting in a 1-1 tie instead of the 0-2 loss for PlayTime intended by Vintage and DarkMago.
In addition to the attempted match-fixing, ESIC also established failures on the part of Vintage to disclose reportable integrity information, breaches of the ESIC Code of Conduct, and failures to cooperate fully and truthfully with the investigation.
DarkMago was also found to have failed to meet reporting and integrity obligations. ESIC established that he had been directly exposed to a discussion concerning match-fixing and subsequently became aware of communications evidencing corrupt conduct, but failed to make the required report.
The match-fixing incident perpetuated by Vintage and DarkMago at the Dota 2 EWC 2026 is notably not the only scandal to have rocked the already struggling South American Dota 2 scene in recent months.
Back in August, 
LGD Gaming mid laner Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo was banned from competing in The International (TI) 2026 and all future tournaments by organiser PGL due to issues with the player's competitive integrity. In a post on its official Weibo account, LGD revealed that they were informed of competitive integrity issues relating to TaiLung's tournament activities. The team added they immediately launched an internal investigation, then shared their findings and cooperated with PGL in the organiser's subsequent investigation.
Neither LGD or PGL have revealed any details surrounding TaiLung's alleged competitive integrity issues or in which tournaments these issues were committed.
With TaiLung's ban coming mere days before TI 2026, this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament, LGD were forced to look for a last-minute stand-in so they could compete in the event. LGD managed to secure the services of two-time TI champion 
Topias Miikka “Topson” Taavitsainen to have a full roster to compete in TI 2026.
While LGD put up an admirable effort considering the circumstances, they were knocked out of TI 2026 in 9th-13th place after losing in the Elimination Stage to eventual third place finisher 
Team Yandex. LGD would then release its South American roster shortly after the conclusion of TI 2026, leaving the already struggling South American scene with no notable active teams while it is still reeling from two major scandals.
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