It’s a devastating blow for NAVI Jr, who would have played in their first-ever Tier 1 LAN event in ESL One Raleigh 2025.
Natus Vincere Junior (NAVI Jr), the Dota 2 academy team of iconic Ukrainian esports organisation Natus Vincere, has been disqualified from ESL One Raleigh 2025 due to alleged multiple instances of bug abuse during their run in the tournament’s Western European qualifier.
In a statement on their official X (formerly Twitter) , ESL One Raleigh organiser ESL said that they decided to disqualify NAVI Jr from the tournament after they found “multiple abuses” of a bug involving the Smoke of Deceit item by the team’s position 5 player, Stanislav “Riddys” Mitroshkyn.
The Smoke of Deceit bug allowed players to know if the enemy team used the item by checking the inventory of the opposing heroes and right-clicking on the item’s icon. If the “Alert allies” pop-up did not appear from this, then it meant that the enemy team had used Smoke of Deceit, thus allowing the team to avoid an otherwise unknown gank.
This bug has been present in the game for some time now, as Dota 2 developer Valve Software is yet to release a patch to remove the exploit. ESL also pointed out that this bug has been flagged in previous tournaments as cause for disqualification.
While the organiser did not state which games the alleged bug abuse took place in, footage of Riddys allegedly using the bug during NAVI Jr’s 2-0 victory over AVULUS in the lower bracket finals of the qualifier has been making the rounds online. It is worth noting that this match earned NAVI Jr their initial spot in ESL One Raleigh, which would have been the team’s first-ever Tier 1 LAN tournament appearance.
With NAVI Jr disqualified, their spot will be taken by AVULUS, who finished third in the qualifier.
NAVI Jr have yet to release an official statement addressing their disqualification from ESL One Raleigh. However, some of the Dota 2 community have protested ESL’s decision to disqualify NAVI Jr, claiming that they were not the only team to abuse the Smoke of Deceit bug in the qualifiers.
A post on the official Dota 2 subreddit notably called for ESL to disqualify all teams that were found to have abused the bug, not just NAVI Jr, for the sake of fairness. The aforementioned post claimed that Tundra Esports and Team Spirit have also made use of the bug in their respective qualifier runs.
ESL One Raleigh is set to take place from April 7 to 13 in Raleigh, the United States. The tournament features 12 teams competing for the lion’s share of a $1 million prize pool.
