The Chongqing Major has been the home to the largest controversy in DotA 2 in 2018. Carlo “Kuku” Palad, a DotA 2 player from TNC Predator, was banned from attending an upcoming tournament after he made racist comments against the Chinese team during a public game.
Palad was accused of typing the phrase “ching chong,” usually used derisively to mimic the Chinese language. Palad did so in a public game with Chinese players in November 2018. However, his team TNC refused to bar him from participating despite outrage from Chinese stakeholders.
DotA 2 developer Valve announced in a statement that it was banning Palad from participating in the upcoming Chongqing Major DotA 2 tournament in China in January 2019.
“TNC has mishandled the situation on multiple occasions, making the situation much worse than it needed to be,” the company said in its statement.
Valve previously criticized Palad’s statements but refused to step in. In its most recent statement, the company explained that TNC’s refusal to discipline their player forced them to change their stance on the controversy.
