DOTA 2 Being Review Bombed After Racist Incident

Deleted member 2840 · Nov 8, 2018

This has been blowing up in the community for the last few days.

It all started when a 17 year old compLexity Gaming player from the Phillipines player named Andrei "skem" Ong, while in a tournament match against Chinese team Royal Never Give Up, wrote this in All Chat:

The Chinese DOTA 2 community went up in flames and demanded something to be done against the player. compLexity Gaming's response was this

We have been made aware of an inappropriate comment by one of our players in today's #coLDota #DreamLeague match. Complexity Gaming does not condone intolerance of any kind and the player will receive a formal reprimand, as well as a maximum fine.

As time went on, and neither Dreamleague(the company behind the tournament) nor Valve acted upon this, the Chinese community started to get angrier about the whole situation. Doesn't help that just a few days after the skem incident, another professional player from the Phillipines Carlo "Kuku" Palad did this on a public game:

So now Chinese players, angry at the inaction of the companies involved, started to do whatever they can to show their dissatisfaction at the whole thing. From Tweets, to emails, to mass negative reviewing DOTA 2.

There's a whole lot more to unpack from a few Chinese players comparing that usage to calling someone a n****r to others actively using racial slurs as a "reaction".

Update:

saci said:
Earlier today BurNIng published a statement he received from Valve to his followers on Chinese social media in regards to the recent incident that occurred during the DreamLeague Minor.

darkwing · Nov 8, 2018

this is a disgrace to the gaming community in the Philippines

Lupic · Nov 8, 2018

While I completely disagree with what the players have done and the lack of official response/action from Valve and Complexity, I don't think review bombing the game is going to make a huge difference.

elyetis · Nov 8, 2018

It would be nice if it could make Valve actually do something about the fact that it is tame by pub standard.

behOemoth · Nov 8, 2018

Looks like Skem is on the usual defense of not grasping what he did. Complexity on the other hand should be more aggressive denouncing Skems statements.

DrArchon · Nov 8, 2018

Valve has needed to fix up its in-game chat in Dota for years now.

Good to see it's finally biting them in the ass.

TheBaldwin · Nov 8, 2018

atluke said:
While I completely disagree with what the players have done and the lack of official response/action from Valve and Complexity, I don't think review bombing the game is going to make a huge difference.

It gets awareness atleast and forces valve to hopefully act due to negative PR.

Why they would allow this is baffling at a professional standard. They want eaports to be taken, it wont with stuff like this

danmaku · Nov 8, 2018

Complexity said they're going to fine the player for the maximum amount allowed. Assuming they do, it sounds fine to me. They're not trying to justify what he did or sweep it under the rug. They could've fired him, sure, but maybe they want to give him another chance.

Deleted member 2802 · Nov 8, 2018

danmaku said:
Complexity said they're going to fine the player for the maximum amount allowed. Assuming they do, it sounds fine to me. They're not trying to justify what he did or sweep it under the rug. They could've fired him, sure, but maybe they want to give him another chance.

It sounds like $2000-5000, but without any numbers it seems a little toothless.

It could be $100 for all we know.

jeelybeans · Nov 8, 2018

This is bad and I hope the companies step in soon but let's also acknowledge East Asian racism. The Chinese look down on philipinos.

Strafer · Nov 8, 2018

What does review bombing actually accomplish? I've seen a lot of this lately.

Ketch · Nov 8, 2018

Some one used a racial slur in dota? Unprecedented! /s

In all seriousness dota is a toxic cesspool. Of course valve does nothing about this, they've proven over time that they don't care about this kind of behavior in dota.

Hell, they condone it. Go find any YouTube video of sir action slacks playing a game of dota and you hear him being a toxic ass hole, then tune into the international and watch him be the face of the community.

udllpn · Nov 8, 2018

The guilty parties are, in this case, the players and their teams. Valve can't really do anything else, except maybe suspend the players from any sponsored competitions. In fact, they should do just that.

Khrol · Nov 8, 2018

Strafer said:
What does review bombing actually accomplish? I've seen a lot of this lately.

Not much from what I can tell. It's very much like petitions. You hear about it and then it fades away.

Zoon · Nov 8, 2018

I apologize if anyone is offended but I honestly can't understand how this is considered racist. Definately derogatory and insulting though and the player shouldn't get a free pass especially since this is from an official tournament. Regardless, Valve has to do something about racism in their games. The current report function for text/voice abuse is completely useless.

Deleted member 2834 · Nov 8, 2018

Ketch said:
Some one used a racial slur in dota? Unprecedented! /s

I'm not sure if it's unprecedented but I don't remember a similar incident in a pro game.

Rudolph · Nov 8, 2018

As long as no one is disparaging white kids no one cares. I mean it makes sense white ppl fragile and valve wants it's money.

Ketch · Nov 8, 2018

Imp the Dimp said:
I'm not sure if it's unprecedented but I don't remember a similar incident in a pro game.

In a pro game on stream, no (unless you look in the chat) but toxic hate speech is rampant in dota.

Rafako · Nov 8, 2018

danmaku said:
Complexity said they're going to fine the player for the maximum amount allowed. Assuming they do, it sounds fine to me. They're not trying to justify what he did or sweep it under the rug. They could've fired him, sure, but maybe they want to give him another chance.

If it's his first incident I also think the sanction it's fine. Put him under observation and at the next incident take a bigger action.

Deleted member 2802 · Nov 8, 2018

https://old.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/9v9jfe/this_is_getting_out_of_hand_ssaspartan_with_a/

Another idiot chimes in

SsaSpartan (@SsaSpartan)
What i was trying to prove u guys is that most of the people are not racist at all like this guy skem he just wanted to say good luck u took it to the next level.

CloseTalker · Nov 8, 2018

As usual review bombing proving to be an irrelevant tactic that only hurts devs and potential customers, and does exactly nothing productive to solve the problem. Steam desperately needs to figure out a way to prevent review bombing. I can't imagine it's ludicrously difficult to flag a massive influx of reviews for a 5+ year old game.

Deleted member 2802 · Nov 8, 2018

CloseTalker said:
As usual review bombing proving to be an irrelevant tactic that only hurts devs and potential customers, and does exactly nothing productive to solve the problem. Steam desperately needs to figure out a way to prevent review bombing. I can't imagine it's ludicrously difficult to flag a massive influx of reviews for a 5+ year old game.

They have a big warning - Reviews had massive downvoting at this time and it shows a graph

Mobyduck · Nov 8, 2018

People on reddit are extremely upset at the Chinese players and are basically dismissing the issue as Chinese all being extremely racist, so for them it evens out.

Carlius · Nov 8, 2018

the state of the game is worse than ever. So much bullshit toxicity and no fucks given that it turned into my least played game lately. I have over 7k hours and now i just cant handle the game and its community. Every match is just a pain to go through.

SmartWaffles · Nov 8, 2018

Zoon said:
I apologize if anyone is offended but I honestly can't understand how this is considered racist. Definately derogatory and insulting though and the player shouldn't get a free pass especially since this is from an official tournament. Regardless, Valve has to do something about racism in their games. The current report function for text/voice abuse is completely useless.

It is utterly racist to Chinese people period, as bad as it can be.

Rudolph · Nov 8, 2018

shira said:
https://old.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/9v9jfe/this_is_getting_out_of_hand_ssaspartan_with_a/

Another idiot chimes in

SsaSpartan (@SsaSpartan)
What i was trying to prove u guys is that most of the people are not racist at all like this guy skem he just wanted to say good luck u took it to the next level.

Goddamn pornstar in the comments tryna educate this fool lmao.

pronk · Nov 8, 2018

Zoon said:
I apologize if anyone is offended but I honestly can't understand how this is considered racist. Definately derogatory and insulting though and the player shouldn't get a free pass especially since this is from an official tournament. Regardless, Valve has to do something about racism in their games. The current report function for text/voice abuse is completely useless.

Wait what? How is this not racist?

OnionPowder · Nov 8, 2018

seems like dota

i've put 1k hours into dota and maybe 1/3rd of my games had a hard R dropped at one point. Sometimes it's just even the players steam name. They don't give a fuck

Deleted member 5545 · Nov 8, 2018

i was following for a bit but wait they want valve to ice kuku for saying "chingchong" in a pub? worse shit gets said every day including by pros, why would they expect anything here

StarStorm · Nov 8, 2018

Nearly 2,000 negative reviews in 2 days. Review bombing doesn't do anything though. Them threatening not to spend any money on dota 2? Ok. Might as well play another game.

People will say anything to get them triggered. It happens all the time.

lucebuce · Nov 8, 2018

Yazzees said:
for saying "chingchong" in a pub?

..

while in a tournament match against Chinese team Royal Never Give Up, wrote this in All Chat:

Mesoian · Nov 8, 2018

shira said:
https://old.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/9v9jfe/this_is_getting_out_of_hand_ssaspartan_with_a/

Another idiot chimes in

SsaSpartan (@SsaSpartan)
What i was trying to prove u guys is that most of the people are not racist at all like this guy skem he just wanted to say good luck u took it to the next level.

PFFT

"Girls are watching, I'm changing it! I'm trying to change it!"

Man, why are so many esports kids so full of shit?

I mean, I know why, but you know...WHY?!?

Ketch said:
Some one used a racial slur in dota? Unprecedented! /s

In all seriousness dota is a toxic cesspool. Of course valve does nothing about this, they've proven over time that they don't care about this kind of behavior in dota.

Hell, they condone it. Go find any YouTube video of sir action slacks playing a game of dota and you hear him being a toxic ass hole, then tune into the international and watch him be the face of the community.

It's one thing to let it go unchecked in pubs.

But this is a tournament setting. An International tournament setting, one that could very easily be televised.

Can't pull that shit on the pro circuit. This is where your money is made and you wanna act like that?

Rival · Nov 8, 2018

I know I'm in the minority but man these kinda things just don't bother me ! I wouldn't even call it racist, just perhaps stupid and insensitive

Deleted member 5545 · Nov 8, 2018

lucebuce said:
..

how about you read the fucking OP and pay attention to who i was talking to bro

saci said:
Doesn't help that just a few days after the skem incident, another professional player from the Phillipines Carlo "Kuku" Palad did this on a public game:.

lucebuce · Nov 8, 2018

Yazzees said:
how about you read the fucking OP and pay attention to who i was talking to bro

My bad friendo. You do sound like a Dota 2 player though!

Deleted member 5545 · Nov 8, 2018

lucebuce said:
My bad friendo. You do sound like a Dota 2 player though!

at least dota 2 players will read what i say in any language while this all-english forum continues to struggle with people leaping at a chance to "correct" someone haphazardly

collige · Nov 8, 2018

Once Valve started having a hand in non-TI tournaments, they accepted responsibility for dealing with shit like this. Dude needs consequences at the tournament level.

Also, why does his tag have "JackyMao" in it? That's hella confusing.

DrArchon said:
Valve has needed to fix up its in-game chat in Dota for years now.

Good to see it's finally biting them in the ass.

Wait, what does this have to do with the chat?

lucebuce · Nov 8, 2018

Yazzees said:
at least dota 2 players will read what i say in any language while this all-english forum continues to struggle with people leaping at a chance to "correct" someone haphazardly

stay salty

potentialtodisplease · Nov 8, 2018

Rival said:
I know I'm in the minority but man these kinda things just don't bother me ! I wouldn't even call it racist, just perhaps stupid and insensitive

I have to agree. I just grew up in a different time. I've heard it from white, black, asian, et cetera. I believe he should be fined and reprimanded, but I just don't see the point. If he antagonizes again give him a ban. Seems pretty simple to me.

Barrel Cannon · Nov 8, 2018

Yeaa..... I don't see Valve doing much, but I hope I can be surprised for once. It would be nice if they can set a precedent

ApeEscaper · Nov 8, 2018

The racist comments going around on twitter replies etc sheesh, oh yeah forgot you can't be racist towards Asians! Smh, like all racism to Asians it'll be ignored quick and not much attention as racism towards other races just brushed off

Also funny reading comments denying it's racist are all coming from white people

Morgan Park · Nov 8, 2018

The longer esports orgs recruit clearly racist/misogynist/immature kids to their teams, the more this will happen. :/

And the longer the majority of the game's fanbase doesn't care if their fav is problematic, the less the orgs will do. I don't like review bombing, but I do appreciate a stink being raised in general about this shit. Doesn't get called out enough in the games I follow.

WellbornWarrior · Nov 8, 2018

Correct me if Im wrong but isn't this par for the course for the regular Dota player?

pronk · Nov 8, 2018

Yazzees said:
i was following for a bit but wait they want valve to ice kuku for saying "chingchong" in a pub? worse shit gets said every day including by pros, why would they expect anything here

Someone else said something worse so this is fine? It was still a pro player and it doesn't make Valve allowing this kind of thing ok, and the team needs to do something about it.

Yas · Nov 8, 2018

Zoon said:
I apologize if anyone is offended but I honestly can't understand how this is considered racist. Definately derogatory and insulting though and the player shouldn't get a free pass especially since this is from an official tournament. Regardless, Valve has to do something about racism in their games. The current report function for text/voice abuse is completely useless.

That's pretty much the same as saying the N-word to african americans.

Grouch Douglass · Nov 8, 2018

Rival said:
I know I'm in the minority but man these kinda things just don't bother me ! I wouldn't even call it racist, just perhaps stupid and insensitive

Man I was going to jokingly say in before people saying this isn't racist, but was beat lol

Review bombing did do something in that there is now a topic about this. Since the person affected is Asian, it will be forgotten by tomorrow though.

HylianSeven · Nov 8, 2018

Valve should take action with this shit.

Honestly I think they should take action in a broad sense in pubs too, as worse shit gets dropped in pubs all the time. Yes, that would include Kuku in that pub game. I'm talking just take a Rainbow Six Siege approach to it, it would do wonders.

Yazzees said:
at least dota 2 players will read what i say in any language while this all-english forum continues to struggle with people leaping at a chance to "correct" someone haphazardly

Yazzees said:
how about you read the fucking OP and pay attention to who i was talking to bro

He made a mistake and admitted it and you're still acting like a dick about it for no real reason when you came out antagonistic in the first place.

Antrax · Nov 8, 2018

Riot sucks (especially in light of the recent write-ups on how sexist and terrible they are), but their centralized structure for League works in their favor on stuff like this. They get to be the sole arbiters of punishment in the League, and so fans have one entity to pressure for punishment instead of this where maybe Valve will do something, or the team, or the tournament organizers, etc...

When Svenskeren did this same crap (he was using the username "TaipeiChingChong" in Taiwan while practicing), Riot fined him chump change but also suspended him from his team for their first half of games at Worlds. They didn't make it out of the group stage that year, and certainly would've done much better with their star jungler.

Valve should step up here and claim some more ownership of the scene so that there's no wishy-washy business going on with punishments.

medyej · Nov 8, 2018

I don't think the DOTA community will care, I mean they had this guy turn into one of their prominent casters after he said this

HylianSeven · Nov 8, 2018

grandwizorb said:
I don't think the DOTA community will care, I mean they had this guy turn into one of their prominent casters after he said this

He was actually a prominent caster well before that incident, that was part of the reason it blew up at the time.

DOTA 2 Being Review Bombed After Racist Incident

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