OG Taiga on his absence after match-fixing accusations, OG on the verge of disqualification

Dota 2
May 26, 2023
Marcus Wong

After a long hiatus, Tommy “Taiga” Le explains his absence to fans. The OG support player shared on his Discord channel that he has been experiencing anxiety and depression for some time. It’s gotten worse after the International (TI) and evidently deteriorated his performance in Dota Pro Circuit 2023 (DPC 2023).

Fortunately, he is on therapy to get better, and it’s helping him get back his motivation to return to streaming and ranked pubs.

Taiga shares update on his situation on his Discord channel

Taiga match-fixing rumors and accusations

During Taiga’s absence, rumors and accusations about his involvement in match-fixing and suspicious betting activity have been going around. Valve-banned player, Yaroslav “Limitless” Parshin claimed Taiga was “giving away first bloods”, while the former Virtus.pro coach Arsenii “ArsZeeqq” Usov also partially confirmed it.

Mythbusters

With Taiga’s official clarification on what occurred, it’s enough to eliminate the unscrupulous rumors by these parties. Even ArsZeeqq eventually came out to apologize for his accusation on Taiga.

However, Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen from datdota, has the stats to debunk the Taiga rumors. Particularly, the rumor on Taiga feeding first blood contradicts the fact that Taiga secured 9 first bloods and only gave away four first bloods in the 24 games OG played in Berlin Major. That puts Taiga in the second-best net first blood records in Berlin Major. Whereas, in DPC 2023 Tour 2, Taiga had 3 first bloods and gave away only one first blood.

Nevertheless, fans are still skeptical about Taiga’s first blood stats, claiming that match-fixers don’t feed first blood frequently as that would clearly raise suspicions. Instead, even giving away a first blood in one game is enough to rake in decent profit off a match-fixing bet.

Nevertheless, it’s still not a good idea to spread match-fixing accusations about another player until you have legitimate sources. Considering how rampant match-fixing is in Dota 2 esports, especially in China, Eastern Europe and South America. It’s as though any player could potentially be a puppet behind the betting scene.

Taking care of your mental health

We all have been there at some point of our life, so let’s be more considerate about Taiga’s mental health issue. A day in the life of a Dota 2 player consists of a stressful and strict routine. They have to undergo vigorous and long hours of playing ranked pubs and scrims.

Only to ultimately face off with strong opponents, where the games could be anyone’s guess. When it’s all said and done, the winners commemorate their  victories, while the losers had to face the unfavorable verdict of their efforts. Hours of TI True Sight commentaries showed us that even the losers wanted to win. For instance, a recent clip of Wang “Ame” Chunyu crying and apologizing to Lu “Somnus” Yao for not winning TI8.

He blames himself on the Morphling of the Grand Finals Game 4, which he felt he didn’t play better.

In Taiga’s case, team OG placed seventh at TI11, which may not be the results he hoped to achieve. Sure, seventh place at TI would have been an accomplishment for most participants, but considering OG was a top dog going into TI11 after winning ESL One Malaysia 2022. OG certainly should have placed much higher.

On a serious note, let’s hope Taiga’s mental health issue gets better soon, as team OG needs him at DPC Tour 3. OG has played three games without Taiga, and will get disqualified if they use a stand-in for another two games.

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