Valve issues new wave of bans targeting China’s new generation of Dota 2 players

12 Dota 2 players were banned by Valve and Perfect World after an internal investigation into the Chinese professional scene.

This new wave of bans comes only mere months after 25 players from China and Southeast Asia returned to competitive play in March, after serving one to two-year suspensions. Notably, one previously penalised player has now reappeared on the Valve and Perfect World banned list.

Valve and Perfect Word banned players

Two-year ban

• Zhu "V" Lianfa
• Feng "Killa" Bonian
• Li "RanFuDao" Xinyuan
• Liu "Manic" Junhui
• Wang "marblue" Heng
• Yu "Tz." Chengwei
• Wan "59" Tao

Lifetime ban

• Lu "L'enfer, c'est les autres" Yubin
• Chen "Small.Kk" Zhichao
• Liew "Eren" Jun Ji
• Hu "Molasses" Jiaxing
• Li "xiaoyu" Qianyu

Li "xiaoyu" Qianyu was on the EHOME roster when Valve issued the biggest ban wave for Chinese players in 2023. EHOME’s entire roster received different degrees of bans back then, with just one player being lifetime banned. Three other players received a two-year ban and returned to play in March this year, while xiaoyu got just a one-year ban and returned to competitive play in March 2024.

Since then, he has played with various stacks in multiple regional qualifiers for DreamLeague, PGL Wallachia, The International 2024, ESL One and Fissure events. Most recently, he competed in the open qualifiers for the Asian Champions League 2025 under the Raiders Gaming tag.

Neither Perfect World nor Valve gave details regarding the most recent investigation into match-fixing, and it is unclear which tournaments and qualifier legs the 12 players who got banned on May 19, 2025, were involved in. However, xiaoyu is now on the lifetime ban list with no chance of playing competitively again.