$322 may not seem like a lot
but you'd be surprised what an enterprising Dota 2 fan could buy. 80 copies of
Darude's Sandstorm EP, a single Sennheiser PC 350 headset, perfect for throwing.
53 Jars of Hellmann's Mayonnaise or
216 large mangos. IceFrog's favorite. But would you risk an esports career for any of it?
That's what happened in the 322 incident. And though It wasn't the first case of match fixing in esports,
it was the first high profile case for Dota 2. And it's since become shorthand for any play that seems
suspiciously bad.
(Casting)
It was mid 2013 and the sixth season of StarSeries was winding down
Rox.kis would end their unsuccessful campaign with a match again Z Rage on the final day of the round robin.
No matter who won the result wouldn't affect the standings
but the outcome was pretty bizarre. The heavily favored Rox squad lost to Z Rage in a
27 minute slaughter fest that included a lot of bad decision-making
in the form of astoundingly terrible engages
(Casting)
And very ill-advised buy backs by Rox.
(Casting
To put it into perspective, Rox gave up 50 kills that game. That's nearly two a minute.
Two a minute!
It could have been just a case of a team clowning during a meaningless game. A concept that's not exactly
uncommon for Dota 2.
(Casting)
But evidence surfaced that
rox.kis player Alexei "solo" Berezin had bet against his team. With the odds
so firmly in his team's favor the bet would turn
$100 and a loss into
$322.
Starladder banned Solo from their events for life, issued three year bans to his teammates, and banned the Rox
Organization for a year. Rox initially defended the team saying that the evidence was inconclusive
But the player eventually admitted that he had placed the bet and Rox apologized as Solo left the roster
Starladder then commuted Solo's ban to a year as far as we know Solo never got the money
So that's where the 322 number comes from but how has it been used since that time?
Well in-game or in Twitch chat. It's now basically shorthand for any play that it's bad enough to be suspicious
(Casting)
When used outside of the game, a 322 simply refers to match-fixing.
The meme is so widely accepted by the community that when Aero gaming was removed from the summit - by organisers
Even their team management referred to the accusations against two of their players as a
322 scandal. in our current era of Esports, throwing a game for
$322 seems pretty ridiculous
But Valve took the matter seriously and according to a Facebook post by former Team Titan manager
Tiffani "Oling" Lim
they held a briefing at the
International 4 which clearly stated that match fixers would be banned from valve events forever.
This set the tone for the future of Dota 2
esports and underscored the fact that future match fixers would not receive the leniency that Solo had.
As for Solo's career? He managed to bounce back despite the incident. Now a member of Virtus.Pro
who recently won Dota Summit 7 and came second at the Kiev Major,
the ban is comfortably in the rearview mirror.
But the meme as it so often does, remains.
Cut. That's a wrap!
Hey, dude, want an easy way to make $322
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