“He just thought he wouldn’t get caught”: Dota 2 coach Astini on the larger match-fixing, cheating problems in South America behind TaiLung’s ban

The Dota 2 scene was unpleasantly greeted with groundbreaking news days before The International 15, with LGD Gaming’s prodigy Santiago “TaiLung” Agüero Gustavo getting banned from the tournament and all future PGL events for life.

The 17-year-old Peruvian was heavily suspected of potential competitive integrity issues – so bad that his own team had to reportedly snitch on him. 

A case like this has, of course, sent shockwaves to the community, particularly those in South America. Filipe “Astini” Ribeiro, a Brazilian Dota 2 coach, had a lot to say about the matter, so I decided to shoot him a message, and he responded.

He didn’t hold back, and honestly went even further than I expected – things go even deeper than match-fixing in South America. Here’s what he had to say. 

Astini is a pretty high-profile coach from South America, having worked with numerous teams from the region, but he has also gone international. You’ve probably heard of him from his most notable stint with PARIVISION, where he helped the team place in the top three at TI14 last year.

He’s worked with numerous South American players before, but Astini told me he had barely interacted with TaiLung directly. He only remembers one possible interaction. 

Astini’s friend, CaioGordo, told him about Osito (TaiLung’s former in-game name) and Máximo “Wits” Orozco Alza (now PlayTime’s carry) when they were 14 and 15 years old. He did a 30-minute coaching session with a team that had one of the two prospects, and he can’t even recall which one.

Fast forward to his most recent ban, and plenty in the community have sympathized with TaiLung. People argued that maybe the teenager didn’t understand the consequences, or could be influenced by others into doing what he did, 

Well, Astini doesn’t buy it. 

“This ‘was just a kid’ narrative is a very weak argument to defend criminals,” he told me. “The biggest streamers in Peru were banned for matchfixing. They know what happens. They just think they won’t be caught and that the risk-reward ratio pays off.” 

According to him, TaiLung wasn’t this naive teenager who found himself in a bad situation – the kid knew what he was getting into. 

TaiLung’s case isn’t the first time something like this has happened in South America. Literally just last month, we had PlayTime’s scandal involving Gonzalo “DarkMago” Herrera and Juan “Vintage” Angulo while they were competing at the Esports World Cup.

If you’re a Peruvian pro like TaiLung or DarkMago, playing for top squads like LGD Gaming and PlayTime, you’re probably getting paid salaries in USD. Getting such salaries should already be more than enough to put you in a comfortable spot living in South America. So, why do they still get involved?

“Peru esports culture is to think short term,” Astini said. “Even if they are making a good salary, match-fixing will always pay more. But they usually start on Tier 3/Tier 2 where they don’t make so much money. And they stay forever.”

The most interesting part about my chat with Astini was his insight on cheaters in South America. 

Match-fixing has been the hot topic, but according to him, it’s not the only thing dragging the region down. 

“Cheating is also a huge problem not only in SA, but also in NA. Sure, NA is a dead region for 99 reasons, but one of the biggest ones is that there are a lot of Peruvians using cheats in Open Qualifiers to go to Closed Qualifiers, then match-fix there,” he explained.

“So, new talent in NA will never go past Open Qualifiers if they meet the wrong Peruvian team on their path.”

For those with limited betting knowledge: you can’t match-fix in any series. Bookies won’t open markets for Open Qualifier matches, where things can get very sussy. However, once you make it to the Closed Qualifiers for a big event like TI, many sites will actually open the gates. 

So, Astini claims Peruvians have been cheating in Open Qualifiers – even participating in North American ones – to work their way up where the dough is at. “Beforehand, you needed to be at least somewhat good at the game to match-fix, to make it to a tournament to fix,” Astini said. “But now they qualify by hacking, then match-fix.”

He was quick to point out he’s not just speculating either. “Before people call me crazy, there was an ESIC ban wave made on Peruvian scripters and hackers recently.” 

Team Falcons coach Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling also suspected TaiLung of potentially using scripts or a macro because he was toggling his Armlet of Mordiggian on Huskar almost perfectly. 

I asked Astini if he agreed.

“I don’t have a final opinion on TaiLung using scripts. What I can tell you is it’s very likely,” Astini said. He then went on to tell me that TaiLung is very close friends with a particular player he believes used cheats. 

If you’ve been following the professional Dota 2 scene this season, you could’ve easily seen that TaiLung was set up to be the region’s next superstar. So, who’s going to save the region now?

Me and Astini were in quick agreement – Wits, PlayTime’s carry, who played alongside both TaiLung and DarkMago before they got caught. 

At only 18, Wits has been putting in some serious work for PlayTime, but it’s even crazier to think that his progress could have been derailed by playing with the two banned players throughout his career. 

I mean, after breaking free from these chains, Wits immediately won Games of the Future 2026, a million-dollar tournament. 

“Wits deserves all the praise,” Astini said. “All the energy the Peruvian community puts into trying to protect the hackers and match-fixers should be put into praising this guy. Scofield, Wits, Elmisho – F*CKING LEGENDS!”

As for whether the region can actually recover from back-to-back scandals, Astini is surprisingly optimistic, as long as we continue clearing people out. 

He said: “Short term, it might hurt a bit. But if the guilty guys, and I swear to you it’s at least half the playerbase on Closed Qualifiers, get punished, it will open space for new talent. Long-term, it will be good for the region. And again, not only SA, but also NA.” 

Bans aside, the South American scene has looked pretty promising over the past month, so I can see where his hope is coming from. PlayTime has been looking great since the whole ordeal, and Wits has been winning the hearts of many.

Now our eyes should turn to LGD Gaming, who’ll be repping South America at TI15 in a few days.