A professional Dota 2 coach has been caught in the crossfire of the recent mass ban wave sweeping the MOBA related to the use of the controversial third-party software Overplus and is pleading with Valve to be unbanned.
Thousands of Dota players using the tool were handed VAC bans earlier this week, with B8 coach Andrey “Mag” Chipenko among those ruled guilty of using the software. However, Mag is asking Valve to be lenient in his case, claiming in a Feb. 9 post on X (formerly Twitter) to be unbanned as he only briefly downloaded the tool and didn’t play a single online match while it was active.
“Because of my curiosity and foolishness, my Dota 2 account got VAC banned,” Mag said, stating the decade-plus-old account and its inventory are no longer useable due to the download and use of Overplus “as an experiment” during the team scrimmage. Mag admitted to using the tool once to view opponent’s statistics in matchmaking over the past week as he was curious but says he deleted the third-party app that very night.
A major feature of Overplus in Dota 2 is the ability to view recent matchmaking trends and hero pools of opponents, which ranked players would use to dictate the draft. Overplus, like some other third-party apps, offers a clear competitive advantage and provides real-time statistics while playing as opposed to other sites like Dotabuff, but Mag says he never played a single game with the app. “I play rarely and for the purpose of testing certain heroes, but not for grinding MMR or using cheats against other players in matchmaking.”
Mag believes that as he didn’t play a match with the app installed, he should be offered leniency. However, many in the Dota community don’t believe his story in the slightest. “Are we supposed to believe that he heard about this cheat on the same day he got banned from using it?” one player said. Others aren’t convinced he had only just downloaded it on the day of the bans, as Mag himself said was the case. His only evidence is a cropped screenshot of the Overplus app in his downloads folder with the Feb. 8 date—hardly concrete proof of his innocence.
He hasn’t done himself any favors with this weak defense, and given Valve’s absolute stance on the use of the apps, his chances of getting unbanned appear slim. Alongside Mag, many other high-profile ranked players copped a swing of the banhammer in the last few days, with some also hitting up social media to complain.
The fallout of the ban wave continues to ripple across the Dota community that, with any luck, is now free of those using third-party apps for a competitive advantage.
