No matter what the stakes are in a game, Dota 2 players are capable of rage quitting.
The latest demonstration of this came during the final match of the Dota PIT South American Dota Pro Circuit league. In the final match of the regular season, NoPing e-sports was taking on beastcoast. After punting a team fight and losing Roshan, NoPing’s Jose Leonardo “Panda” Padilla Hernandez put out a “GG” call at 25 minutes of the game.
Confusion immediately kicked in when Panda paused the game and disconnected. The rest of NoPing then trickled off the server, with beastcoast ultimately being decided the winner. This ended the series 2-1 in beastcoast’s favor to tie both teams at the top of the standings with 6-1 records.
A 25-minute game isn’t unusual in Dota 2 these days as games can be lost in short order in certain situations. What made this one an unquestionable rage quit was the fact that things were basically even when Panda tapped out, with NoPing still having both the net worth and team XP leads. While this would’ve swung into beastcoast’s favor in time, the game was still entirely winnable for NoPing e-sports.
As a result of this loss, NoPing and beastcoast are set for a rematch that will decide the seeding for the WePlay AniMajor. Had NoPing won this match it would have been guaranteed a start in the event’s playoffs but with both teams now at 6-1 a tiebreaker will decide who starts in the playoffs and who starts in the group stage.
The scene was reminiscent of a 2019 drama involving Gambit Esports player Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin, who rage quitted out of a game in the qualifiers to The International 2019. The rage quit contributed to Gambit missing the event, resulted in disciplinary action from the organization, and was likely a factor in his release from the organization a few weeks later.
Update: NoPing’s Farith “Matthew” Puente stated that what happened with Panda wasn’t a ragequit, but stemmed from Panda being overwhelmed and upset over a misplay which some theorized to be a panic attack. NoPing lost the series, but won the tiebreaker in order to maintain a playoff spot in the WePlay AniMajor.
There are still tiebreakers to be played in a number of different regions but the field for the WePlay AniMajor is nearly complete with this NoPing e-sports vs. beastcoast result. The list of teams locked into the event includes:
Tiebreakers will decide where many of these teams will start. The only spot left up for grabs is the Southeast Asian spot in the wildcard stage. Execration and Fnatic will face off in a best-of-three tiebreaker to determine which team gains the wildcard spot.
The WePlay AniMajor is set to begin on June 2.
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