“New talents encounter 322 as aarly as in a Tier-3 team”, — Kaffs on South America's problems

Former LGD Gaming coach Igor kaffs Furtado published an open letter to the South American Dota 2 community addressing the issue of match-fixing in the region. The specialist paid particular attention to young players, who, in his opinion, are among those most vulnerable to the current situation.

The statement came after the conclusion of the investigation into former PlayTime representatives Juan Vintage Angulo and Gonzalo DarkMago Herrera. As a result, Vintage received a lifetime ban, while DarkMago was suspended from the professional scene for five years.

kaffs named the impact of such schemes on young players as one of the main problems. According to him, aspiring esports players encounter this issue at the very beginning of their professional careers, which can permanently damage their reputations.

The main problem is that our new talents encounter predators from the world of match-fixing as soon as they join a tier-3 team.

And once you get involved in it, you carry a black mark for the rest of your life. It's a very difficult situation, and you could say that our young players are, in some sense, victims.

Speaking about the scale of the situation, kaffs admitted that he had previously been wrong to believe that South America deserved two spots at the year's main tournament. According to the coach, the situation in the region turned out to be far more serious than he had expected.

The situation is so serious that in the playoffs of any qualifier in South America, more than half of the teams have at least one person connected to match-fixing. And that's still a conservative estimate.

Things are so bad that an acquaintance of mine involved in tournament organization advised me to leave the region and start coaching somewhere else. There is a scenario in which organizers could simply stop holding qualifiers for South America.

Furtado then called on representatives of the South American scene to unite and share any information about possible violations with those responsible for conducting investigations.

This is a very important moment when we need to forget about nationalities and unite to try to save our region from this plague together. I urge anyone who has substantial information that could lead to a possible investigation to come forward.

You can message me privately and anonymously, or contact the people who deal with this professionally. Fixed matches should be considered the greatest crime in esports, and the people responsible should be punished.

kaffs separately praised Maximo Wits Orozco, Elvis Scofield De la Cruz Peña, and Yelsthin Elmisho Verde for their stance amid the situation surrounding PlayTime. The specialist also praised Filipe Astini Astini, who, according to him, is actively trying to help the South American scene.

Furtado also addressed the situation surrounding Santiago TaiLung Olivos' ban. The coach declined to judge the decision in his case and called for the community to wait for the conclusion of ESIC's investigation, noting that the organization has the information necessary to make a decision.

In conclusion, the Brazilian coach stated that people previously involved in match-fixing should not be supported or held up as examples for other players.

Peruvian player Farith Matthew Puente previously expressed a similar opinion. During a stream, he reviewed the rosters of the teams that participated in the South American closed qualifier for The International 2026. In his opinion, PlayTime, Hokori, RHCP, Amaru Gaming, Lindorfitos, Rising Rage, Estar Backs, and x5Gaming had players who may have previously been involved in match-fixing.

Matthew separately mentioned LGD Gaming due to the investigation into TaiLung, while stating that he does not consider the team's other players to be involved in similar violations. Team Nemesis was the only team that did not raise such concerns for him.

Earlier, CyberScore reported that OG parted ways with three players at once.