Forty-six players have apparently been banned from Dota 2 (opens in new tab) Esports events following an investigation into alleged cheating at the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) China Region Winter Tour in January. The list includes all players from Team Knights, who were accused of cheating by using a vision hack to achieve a third-place finish in a DPC match.

The result earned Knights $27,000 and a spot in the recent Lima Major (open in new tab). However, the Knights did not fare as well, going 1-15.

The Knights rebranded as the "Antarctic Penguins" shortly after their Lima appearance, dropping most of their old roster, but all of their new roster was included on the banned list. The Antarctic Penguins technically retain a slot in the Spring Tour regional tournament in China, but it is unclear at this time whether they will compete.

According to a statement posted by Perfect World Esports on the Chinese social media platform Weibo (opens in new tab), the bans were issued for "obstruction of fair competition." 21 people were permanently banned and their participation in official Dota 2 tournaments The bans were issued on the grounds of "obstruction of fair competition. Another 13 players were suspended for two years and 12 players were suspended for one year, also banned from participating in official Dota 2 tournaments.

No specific findings or reasons for the different punishments have been released; PC Gamer has reached out to Valve for comment; Perfect World Esports is Valve's regional publishing partner in China.

The massive ban follows 40,000 bans for Dota 2 cheating (open in new tab) issued by Valve late last month. These bans were a honeycomb of sorts, with Valve recognizing cheats, figuring out how to detect them, and letting them cheat for a bit to get as many jerks as possible into the Ban Hammer's sphere of influence.

The timing is a bit convenient for the cheating esports competitors. They are just in time to miss being included in the list of big esports scandals (opens in new tab) that we just went through.