Dota 2 pro Maybe punished for racially charged social outburst

LGD Gaming has announced sanctions on one of its players who made a racist post on social media.

The Chinese organization offered an apology to Dota 2 fans following an outburst on Weibo from PSG.LGD mid laner Lu “Maybe” Yao. The player then apologized himself in a separate statement released by the team.

“Earlier today I was involved in a quarrel with a follower on Weibo. My emotion then got the best of me and I wrote something extremely inappropriate for a public figure and a professional athlete,” Maybe said. “My behavior has caused severe negative impact, and I would like to sincerely apologize for what I have said: I am sorry.”

Maybe will not receive any sort of competitive suspension for the incident, but LGD Gaming has fined the player 50,000 yuan, approximately $7,300 USD.

The racial remarks from Maybe came from a discussion on Weibo regarding ranked matchmaking in China where the pro promoted All Pick mode for high ranked players rather than the region’s standard, Random Draft.

After Maybe suggested that playing Random Draft’s limited hero pool was keeping Chinese pro teams from reaching their full potential, a netizen disagreed and insulted Maybe’s skills and competitive history. Maybe responded with discriminating language against the other user.

The outburst from Maybe was not well received among Chinese fans, with Chinese website SGAMER running a poll that showed 90.87% were in favor of banning Maybe as a result. While that might be extreme, it shows that Dota fans across the world are growing tired of the racial dust-ups that have mired this Dota season

In 2018, TNC Predator player Carlo “Kuku” Palad and at-the-time CompLexity Gaming carry Rolen Andrei Gabriel “Skemberlu” Ong came under fire for racially insensitive remarks directed at Chinese opponents. Both players were penalized with Skem being fined by CompLexity while Kuku was barred from competing in the Chongqing Major by Valve.

More recently, OG offlaner Sébastien “Ceb” Debs was penalized by his organization when he insulted a Russian teammate during a public match.

Despite the controversy, Maybe will be playing for PSG.LGD in the upcoming The International 2019.