Taiga faces consequences of his actions
Tommy "Taiga" Le, a former member of OG and established Dota 2 player, was recently involved in a scandal regarding match-fixing. Evidence of his match-fixing activities surfaced through a Russian content creator, Morf. The actions he committed rippled throughout the Dota 2 community, tarnishing his reputation.
Taiga at The International 2022, playing as support for OG.Credits: Valve
Earlier in 2023 Tommy shared his struggles with his gambling addiction. Unfortunately, things got worse for the player. It's been nearly a week since the news broke. Although Taiga is still part of the newly assembled Leviatan roster, the player is facing dire consequences for his actions.
How Taiga's actions affected OG
Before the evidence of Taiga's activities came to light, OG's current in-game leader, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, was one of the guests on the Morf's show. Ceb revealed OG were the first to find out that Taiga was having an addiction problem.
Ceb is a legendary offlaner in Dota 2.Credits: Valve
As a result, the team was cautious of his actions and decided to bench the player. In the meantime, the team carried out internal investigations. Additionally, Ceb revealed that the team reached out to multiple tournament organisers, including Valve, about the situation.
In his interview with a news outlet, the team's former coach Evgenii "Chu" Makarov also revealed OG became suspicious of Taiga attempting to match-fix in one of the ESL One Berlin matches.
OG's 2024 roster is led by Ceb.Credits: OG
However, the investigation results came back undecisive. Nevertheless, by putting a strain on the OG players' mental capabilities, Taiga had already done his damage to the team. As a result, the team decided to rebuild without Taiga being a part of it.
In the revelation video, ESL One Berlin was the third tournament where the player fixed results. Before that, Taiga also fixed the first blood kills during official DPC matches and DreamLeague Season 22.
A New Meme was Born
Solo was the first known player to fix match results.Credits: Valve
The term "322" is used in the Dota 2 community to describe a situation when a player intentionally plays poorly to make their team lose the match. This term originated around 2014 when a player named Alexey "Solo" Berezin intentionally threw an official match in the Starladder series for 322 USD. Although Solo has redeemed his actions, the term stuck until now.
Twitch chat nowadays after Taiga committed 322.In light of Taiga's recent actions, the term "322" has now been updated to "Taiga2000". Viewers can see the term being spammed in Twitch chats whenever a team makes a throw or a questionable play. When Twitch chat uses the term Taiga2000, it implies they're suspicious of match-fixing.
Taiga has yet to respond to the allegations
The current Dota 2 clients of ULTI Agency.Image Source: Screen Capture of ULTI Agency Website
Before his evidence of 322 was made public, Taiga was one of the clients at ULTI agency. However, shortly after Morf, the player's name is no longer available on the agency's website.
Taiga's Twitter Bio before evidence of his 322 actions were made public.The player has changed their Twitter profile to private. He has also added a new email address for business inquiries in their Twitter bio. However, the player has not yet made any statement, regarding his recent actions.
The Twitter profile as of nowadays.Image Source: Screen Capture of Twitter
As of today, many parties involved in the scandal, including the player's current team, Leviatán, have remained silent. Several tournament organisers, including Valve, are yet to comment. OG is the only party that has publicly condemned their former player's actions.
Featured Image Source: Valve
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