Sitting outside of first place at The International can be a devastating feeling. No team competing in professional Dota 2 understands this better than Chinese Dota 2 team PSG.LGD recently lost to Team Spirit at TI10, earning another second-place finish at The International. PSG.LGD previously took second place at TI8, losing to OG in the grand final. The Chinese team has also taken third at three TIs back in 2019, 2015, and 2012. Unfortunately, it seems as though the Aegis of Champions has continually been outside of PSG.LGD’s reach, routinely dashing the hopes of Chinese Dota 2 fans who have eagerly awaited a new Chinese champion at The International since 2016.

This year’s loss has seen Chinese fans become so irate that PSG.LGD players have had to address public comments regarding their performance at TI10. PSG.LGD player XinQ patiently addressed fans’ concerns in response to his posts, but he has unfortunately deleted his Weibo posts as it seems fans have taken their comments too far. One prevailing sentiment seems to show up on sites like Weibo when addressing PSG routinely.LGD’s loss at TI10, which is that PSG.LGD possibly engaged in match-fixing at TI10, or specifically, that PSG.LGD coach Xiao8 may have fixed the final game of the best-of-5 series based on prior gambling history exposed by his ex-wife on Weibo. 

This is a serious accusation and should be treated as such. Still, the current accusations are rumors at best, although what Xiao8’s ex-wife revealed in her post does match some of Xiao8’s prior behavior.

In a public post on Weibo, Xiao8’s ex-wife accused the former pro player and current coach of PSG.LGD of cheating on her while pregnant with her son and gambling on the outcomes of Dota 2 matches, including his team, PSG.LGD. The matches shown in the betting client align with matches that were played on those dates. Screenshots of SMS conversations were also posted, showing that Xiao8 contacted other women and offered them money for their sex work services. These details would be posted on the Dota 2 subreddit after the conclusion of TI10.

After this Reddit thread began circulating, another thread popped up looking to exonerate Xiao8 by stating his ex-wife faked her evidence, making it unlikely that Xiao8 engaged in match-fixing. The most damning piece of evidence against Xiao8’s ex-wife comes from the fact that Xiao8 and her separated in July 2020, and most of the screenshots shown in her post are of matches in September. His ex-wife concocted this controversy to feed into Chinese fans’ ire and further rumors that someone had engaged in match-fixing, leading to PSG.LGD loss. Everything else remains speculation, although the original poster of the thread asserts that these screenshots are doctored.

Unfortunately, the accusations of Xiao8’s infidelity ring true, as screenshots were leaked years ago on Reddit of Xiao8 speaking to Swedish player zai (who was playing on Team Secret at the time) about picking up women while they both competed at The Summit 3 back in 2015.

The timeline of Xiao8’s infidelity in these screenshots adds up, as the conversations happened in April of 2015, a little less than a month before The Summit 3’s start date of May 13, 2015. At the time, Xiao8 was still married to his first wife, Zhao Jie, who would separate from him after Xiao8 took third place with LGD at The International 2015. The Steam user VXVXVX can be confirmed as Team Secret’s Zai, as Zai would adopt this name in pub matches in 2015. Evidence of VXVXVX being Zai can be seen in this video clip from AdmiralBulldog’s stream when Zai played with AdmiralBulldog using the VXVXVX username and spoke to him using voice chat throughout the match.

While it’s uncertain whether Xiao8 engaged in match-fixing or not, the accusations of infidelity levied against him by his ex-wife are likely to be true based on his prior behavior. However, the rumors of him match-fixing the grand finals of TI10 can’t be substantiated and entirely conjecture at this point. 

So far, neither Valve nor LGD Gaming has responded to these accusations. As most of this has no real bearing on Dota 2 matches played during TI10, it’s unlikely we are to see a response and that most of this will remain a hot topic of discussion by the Dota 2 community. However, it does not bode well for Xiao8 to be known for infidelity in the current social landscape, especially since it seems to be a recurring issue for him.

Chinese Dota 2 has an issue with match-fixing, as many Chinese players have previously engaged in match-fixing. While this doesn’t confirm that Xiao8 engaged in match-fixing, it is evident that the culture in which pro-Chinese Dota 2 players operate has little issue with engaging in match-fixing. 

Should new information surface regarding these accusations, we’ll be certain to report on it. However, please understand that everything at the time of this writing is currently unverified.