Satanic was banned for using a skin-changer

On February 9, news broke that alongside the "Dragon’s Gift" update, Valve banned cheaters who used third-party software for unfair play.

Sometime later, Fishman compiled a list of Dota 2 players who received VAC bans, and among them was Vyacheslav "asdekor_r" Ignatiev. Right now, he is playing in the TI13 qualifiers for Yellow Submarine, a team managed by Corben from Spirit. But that's considered normal.

Why did Valve issue bans?

It was soon discovered that the bans were handed out for using a program called Overplus, which displays the opponent’s pool and recent picks. These are hidden data that cannot be obtained legally, but with them, it becomes easy to target bans in public or official matches. Services like Dotabuff do not provide access to hidden accounts, but Overplus does.

However, there is a catch: Overplus also acts as a skin-changer, allowing users to apply any skins they want. The service is subscription-based, and the skins are visible only to the player using the application.

Many users enable the skin-changer but disable the hidden statistics feature in the settings. Yet, it seems that this might not fully stop the program's cheating functionalities. It's presumed that it might still request hidden data, so cosmetic enthusiasts were punished alongside cheaters — caught by Valve’s anti-cheat system.

Corben claimed Asdekor only used the skin-changer

When Asdekor received his VAC ban, Corben made a statement (retaining the original spelling and punctuation):

"Unfortunately, the current wave of bans affects me because the player from YES, asdekor, got a VAC ban for using a skin-changer (no stats, only hats, according to the player himself). Valve hasn’t yet clarified the significance of this status in Dota, and there are no statements from tournament operators.

How VAC works in Dota, no one knows. In CS:GO, it means you are banned from tournaments, and creating a new account won't help, or if you manage to become known, everyone will find out. If it works the same way in Dota, a ban for a skin-changer equates to bans for match-fixing at a major (hello, Knights).

The problem is the severity. For an ordinary person, a VAC ban means creating a new account and continuing to play Dota. For a player, even a tier-4 one, it’s an incredible issue, and not being able to compete at TI is a huge blow."

Dmitry promised to contact Valve to get Asdekor unbanned. It's also important to note that the news about the bans emphasizes that those who received VAC bans are permanently prohibited from participating in Valve’s tournaments.

Asdekor insisted he did not use cheats

On Telegram, Asdekor assured that he did not use cheats (retaining the original spelling and punctuation):

 "1 I am a player who used prohibited programs. I had no idea this program was banned; there were zero warnings. All my friends played with it. I watched streams of people who used it; I liked the skins and all that, but I didn’t have money for them. Everyone around was using it; there was no word of a ban. Writing this now is after the fact.

2 This software did nothing inside the game except for skins; the other features did not interact with me. I didn’t exploit the system compared to those who didn’t use it.

 3 Don’t believe in map hack and cheats without evidence. All my public games andall my competitive matches are publicly accessible; anyone can check and see I didn’t abuse anything. I just saw my hero differently, and that’s all; it didn’t give me any advantage.

 P.S. Many say I paid for the skin-changer instead of real skins, and I deserved the ban. But compare 200 rubles with millions. And also, when I drafted, my win rate was 10%. I think if I was using something, it would be higher, or I’m just a super low-skill player dragged along. For now, I’m just waiting for what Valve will say. I’m playing on a 10k account and training for the next tournaments. If everything goes smoothly, there will be the next tournament."

Official announcement was absent, but Asdekor continues to play

After the ban, Vyacheslav moved to another account, which also received a VAC ban and is now inaccessible, likely deleted.

A month later, Yellow Submarine competed in the qualifiers for the first Elite League. There was no official news about a pardon from Corben or Asdekor. Vyacheslav participated in the Elite League qualifiers with a new account, which had about 90 hours of playtime at that time.

Before the TI13 qualifiers, Asdekor had already participated in ESL and PGL tournament qualifiers, indicating these tournament operators also did not oppose his participation.

Currently, Vyacheslav is ranked 816th on the European leaderboard.