WePlay! Esports made the call on CyberTRAKTOR last Thursday, citing a growing suspicion that “some participants of the series were not playing competitively”. Further investigation from Pushka League analysts confirmed that at least one of the team’s players was intentionally losing games and betting on match results.

��Our esports department and the analysts of WePlay! Pushka League carefully examined the matches and came to the conclusion that CyberTRAKTOR players, with a high degree of probability, made bets on some intermediate results of their matches,�� WePlay! said in a statement.

��CyberTRAKTOR was suspended from participation in WePlay! Pushka League until the end of the investigation.��

CyberTRAKTOR launched their own investigation and found that one of their players, Artur ��Retsu�� Kotsoyev, was involved in match-fixing, which earned him a one-year ban from participating at all WePlay! Esports events, effective until May 2, 2021.

“We understand that CyberTRAKTOR is in complicated circumstances with its Dota 2 roster that is still on probation,” said Anton ��WarLocK�� Tokarev, Esports Lead Esports Manager at WePlay!.

“It��s not easy to commit to such decisions, but we see no other choice if we want to prevent such incidents in the future.”

CyberTRAKTOR representative Evgeny Belozertsev responded by thanking WePlay! for the opportunity to participate in the next season of the league, apologised for the unfortunate incident and assured that his organisation would be “controlling our players during official matches and practice more closely” in future.

On Saturday, it was confirmed that Team Unique would replace CyberTRAKTOR in Division 2 for the inaugural Pushka League season. Since the tournament is already well underway, the Russian squad will enter the tournament with CyberTRAKTOR’s former win-loss record (1-1) and will only play a single match before the playoffs.

Their first and only fixture of the group stage was played on Sunday, where Unique faced Team Empire Hope. Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorohod and co. started strong but ended up losing in a reverse sweep, meaning they will head to the playoffs as the third seed in the CIS group. It also means Unique will have the chance to exact revenge on Empire Hope, the second seed, in the quarter-finals this Friday.

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT DOTA 2 BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

VP.PRODIGY vs FLYTOMOON WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREVIEW

VP.Prodigy and FlyToMoon will clash for the second time ever this Wednesday on day seven of Division 1 matches in the WePlay! Pushka League.

Launched at the start of April, VP.Prodigy are Virtus.pro’s new Dota2 academy team. The current lineup consists of ex-HellRaisers player Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, ex-Singularity support Albert “eine” Garaev, two former VP players in carry Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko and Vitalie “Save-” Melnic, with Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi standing in at no.2.

The team have enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in their early endeavours. They picked up titles at Gaming World and the StayHome Challenge, to which they added successful runs through Parimatch League Season 2 Relegation and the WePlay! Pushka League Season 1: CIS Qualifier.

Most recently, VP.Prodigy were seen competing at Epic Prime League Season 1, where they are currently sitting at the third place with a 2-1 record. Their only loss of the tournament so far came against the main Virtus.pro roster, while Save- and co. picked up two commanding wins over Winstrike Team and Team Spirit.

SEE ALSO: HOW TO BET ON DOTA 2 ESPORTS

While it is early days, the VP.Prodigy project appears to be paying dividends. Indeed, they already have the wood over FlyToMoon, who have been all over the place this year.

We saw some of the best of FTM at Parimatch League Season 2. Although they lost in round one of the playoffs, they bounced back with a clean sweep against Winstrike and a revenge win over HellRaisers before rallying from 0-2 down to beat Virtus.pro in the grand finals.

On the flip side, FlyToMoon showed nothing of note at the StayHome Challenge. Two 0-2 losses against Vikin.gg and VP.Prodigy meant Andrey “ALWAYSWANNAFLY” Bondarenko and his team had to settle for the bronze medal, which was decidedly underwhelming for a team that had already won two minor titles in 2020.

FTM are also participating at Epic Prime League Season 1, where they have claimed 2-0 wins over B8 and Winstrike but suffered a 1-2 loss against Cyber Legacy. On Sunday they copped a 1-2 defeat against the Virtus.pro first team in the Pushka League, although FlyToMoon’s performance in that clash should give them confidence as they prepare to face VP’s academy side.

VP.PRODIGY vs FLYTOMOON WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREDICTIONS

VP.Prodigy enter this match as heavy favourites, but perhaps esports bookmakers have put too much emphasis on the teams�� recent meeting at the StayHome Challenge. That match was much closer than the final result would suggest, as the two sides secured 22 kills apiece in the first game and FTM blew a substantial lead in the second.

The difference between these teams is not nearly as huge as the odds would imply, which makes siding with FlyToMoon at $2.35 a great value bet. You could take the safer option and back FTM with a +1.5 map handicap, but the $1.43 odds are nowhere near as attractive as those on offer for the outright win.

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT DOTA 2 BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREVIEW

Virtus.pro and Gambit will renew their hostilities this Thursday on the opening matchday of the WePlay! Pushka League: Division 1 online Dota2 tournament.

Gambit will enter the Thursday’s bout on the heels of an underwhelming run through ESL One Los Angeles 2020 – Online: Europe & CIS, where Artiom “fng” Barshack and co. missed out on the playoffs after finishing outside the top four in Group A.

Gambit got off to a slow start in LA, losing their opening two fixtures against Vikin.gg (0-2) and Virtus.pro (1-2). Although they bounced back with a commanding win over Nigma (2-0) in round three, fng’s squad left a lot to be desired in their losses to HellRaisers (1-2), Cyber Legacy (1-2) and OG (2-0). En route to their seventh-place finish, fng’s squad picked up one more win against B8 (2-0) to bring their total series tally to 2-5 and their map record to 7-10.

Prior to their ESL One Los Angeles 2020 appearance, Gambit took a swing at StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3. There, they looked fairly solid and picked up wins against CR4ZY, Alliance and BOOM Esports before losing to Team Aster (0-2) and Alliance (0-2) in the upper and lower bracket finals respectively.

Virtus.pro produced a mixed bag of results through 2019/20 season. For the most part, Alexei “Solo” Berezin and co. have struggled since their run to the last 12 at The International 2019. Fifth-sixth finishes at ESL One Hamburg 2019 and ONE Esports Dota 2 World Pro Invitational Singapore were well below the level expected of the 2018/19 Dota Pro Circuit runners-up, as was the 13th-16th result at DreamLeague Season 13.

In a bid to find more stability, VP have made a couple of roster changes in recent months. Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov and Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev replaced Vitalie “Save-” Melnic and Egor “epileptick1d” Grigorenko, who was sent over to the VP.Prodigy academy team. VP also parted ways with their coach Anatoly “boo1k” Ivanov and at the start of April benched cooman in favour of Igor “iLTW” Filatov, who played as a stand-in during ESL One LA Online: EU & CIS and will continue in that role for the WePlay! Pushka League.

Although it would be hard to say iLTW is a massive upgrade on cooman, there is no denying that VP’s performances have improved since they signed the Russian carry. They dominated from the get-go at ESL One LA Online: EU & CIS, where they topped Group A with a perfect 7-0 series and 14-3 map record. They carried that form all the way through the playoffs, downing Team Spirit 2-0 and then beating OG twice to take out the title.

VIRTUS.PRO vs GAMBIT WEPLAY! PUSHKA LEAGUE S1: DIVISION 1 BETTING PREDICTIONS

Virtus.pro have won all four of their meetings with Gambit this season, racking up an 8-1 aggregate scoreline in the process. While Gambit pushed their regional rivals to three maps in their most recent clash at ESL One Los Angeles 2020, they never looked like they had a realistic chance to close out the series. VP have all the momentum after their big win at ESL One LA and should have no trouble sealing a clean sweep on Thursday.

The WePlay! Pushka League was announced in late March as an online CIS and EU Dota2 tournament featuring 14 teams divided into two regional groups of seven. WePlay! decided to run the $250,000 event so Dota2 teams could compete during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to cancellation or postponement of numerous esports tournaments worldwide.

Some of the biggest names in Dota2 are slated to compete in the WePlay! Pushka League, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday, April 23. OG, Team Nigma, Team Secret, Team Liquid, Alliance, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro, HellRaisers, B8, Gambit Esports and Team Spirit have all accepted invites, while the remaining two spots are reserved for the champions of EU and CIS qualifiers, which are set to conclude next week.

Billed as the biggest EU and CIS Dota2 esports event of the month besides ESL One Los Angeles, which is approaching the final stages, the WePlay! Pushka League is now set to expand its reach to lower-tier teams with the addition of a second division.

WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 will feature only eight teams – four from CIS and four from EU – who will battle it out for the largest slice of a $5,000 prize pool and one of two tickets to the first division for WePlay! Pushka League Season 2. The second division will run alongside the main event and will feature six teams that failed to make it through the closed qualifiers for the top tier. The other two teams will come through EU and CIS Open Qualifiers, slated to begin Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19 respectively.

WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 will begin with the round-robin stage, where CIS and EU teams will be divided into two separate groups for best-of-three (Bo3) matches. The top team from each group will go directly to the semi-finals, while the second- and third-placed teams will advance into the quarter-finals. The two teams that place last in their respective groups will be eliminated.

The playoffs will feature a single-elimination bracket, with all matches played as Bo3. The tournament seeding will also ensure that each region will have one representative in the finals to support the idea of keeping the same number of EU and CIS teams in attendance at WePlay! Pushka League for the second season.

WePlay! Pushka League Division 2 prize pool distribution
First place: $2,000
Second place: $1,500
Third-fourth place: $750