The Dota 2 team HYDRA and their player dream` have been accused of match fixing, i.e. game manipulation. The team behaved suspiciously during Neon League matches, where there were also conspicuously high bets, which in turn prompted an investigation against the team
The current Dota Pro circuit has been directly involved in some controversies. Already a month ago, several pros, including Virtus.pro’s Kamil “Koma” Biktimirov, were permanently banned from the competition for account sharing.
At the moment there is another fraud allegation. This time Team HYDRA is in the spotlight. The team and their player dream` got caught in the crossfire because of suspicious incidents during matches and were therefore accused by the Neon League of having manipulated matches.
Conspicuously high bets and bad play
HYDRA is currently playing in the second division of the EEU DPC, but wanted to train more and therefore participated in the tournament from a third-party provider, the Neon League, until the matches in the second division begin.
But at the Neon League there was a bang that once again got the community in an uproar. During the matches, the admins discover that strange things were happening with the betting. Apparently, there was a massive increase in betting amounts – a red flag. Betting totals, which were normally around $50, suddenly spiked to $6,700. And then HYDRA lost the first game in a suspicious way.
What did dream` have to do with it?
HYDRA’s supporting player, 22-year-old Kıyalbek “dream`” Tayirov, was at the center of accusations because he played particularly poorly – which is strikingly out of character for him. Hydra lost the first map in a suspicious way, despite being the favorite of the event against the underdog Team IVY. 90% of bets predicted they would lose a map.
When admins examined HYDRA’s internal communication records, they came across several instances where dream` forced team fights despite being at a disadvantage. In one of these fights, the carry player was 160 gold away from his buyback. Considering that it would only take seconds to farm this buyback, HYDRA’s actions were deemed questionable.
Is HYDRA Innocent?
Following the investigation, HYDRA denied all allegations, but the team agreed to cooperate. Tournament administrators involved in the case sent all the evidence to the admins, Valve and other tournament organizers in the scene.
If HYDRA is found guilty, the players involved could face lifetime bans from competing in Valve events, which would mean they would be eliminated from the second EMU division before it even started.
Further inconsistencies around dream`
dream` has been suspected of match fixing in the past. In November 2021, an audio recording between team managers led to investigations against Fantastic Five players – including dream`. However, the investigation was dropped because the recording was not considered conclusive evidence by the managers. dream` played for teams like Gambit Esports, AS Monaco Gambit, HYDRA and No Sorry.