Hi everyone, I'm Tiffani "Oling" Lim. You might have known me as the manager for the Titan Dota 2 squad. As for now, I'm just an active member in the SEA Dota scene, and I'd like to share some of my findings regarding this Arrow / Jaren case here.
Just a quick list for your reference:
Arrow Gaming Players: DDZ, Lance, Matteru, Mozun & Xiangzaii.
Jaren = Arrow Gaming manager
Xiaoting = DDZ's girlfriend
Hishiko = Lance's girlfriend
Let's begin.
I - Early Investigations
A while ago I learnt from Ren & a few others of the possibility that Arrow Gaming is also implicated in the series of matchfixing incidents in SEA. I wasn't actively involved in the investigations back then, just helping out when Dota2Lounge asked me some questions about Arrow Gaming and their gfs.
At that point in time D2Lounge didn't find the evidence available conclusive yet because the bets were placed via the gfs' accounts (and not the players'), and the Arrow players found out that BTS was thinking of replacing Arrow Gaming in the Summit 2 as well. But both BTS & D2Lounge were careful and hesitant about this so nothing was released or announced yet.
II - Ren's Published Findings
Finally 2 days ago, Ren decided to publish his findings via this Reddit thread. The way he did it was just to present the facts (bets by the gfs) and let the community judge for itself if Arrow Gaming really did participate in matchfixing.
Prior to this many were witnesses that both gfs posted angry FB statuses in an attempt to discredit such claims, but as the Reddit thread surfaced all such statuses were deleted. The members involved and their gfs fell silent on social media.
III - The Cover-up Attempt
Around 12am SGT yesterday I was chatting with a friend regarding this incident, and I found out that she was approached by DDZ's gf earlier on for help in creating a coverup story & fabricating evidence. And soon enough at 3am this thread appeared on Reddit, and I was really angry that the players would actually go to the extent of creating more lies to cover up for what they did.
The Reddit post was posted by the user "ArrowDDZ" & was shared on DDZ & Xiaoting's Facebook wall. In the post "DDZ" not only denies any involvement in "322" activities, supported it's claims with fabricated pieces of evidence, but also launched a mini-section with personal attacks on Ren's betting history.
That's the reason why I was quick to point out that the evidence presented in the thread was fake (tweet). And quickly enough, people began to realize problems with the chatlogs, and here are some that I've compiled: 1, 2, 3.
I presented my findings to the tournament organizers involved too. And around 4pm Jaren released a post on the Arrow Gaming Facebook Page wall (post), claiming that the Arrow Gaming management had nothing to do with the coverup attempt. The post was deleted yesterday night for some reason.
And around the same time I received a message from my friend & DDZ's girlfriend - the players wanted to make a public apology which includes a confession against Jaren, stating that Jaren coerced them into this cover-up scheme. I agreed to help because I saw no harm in offering a public apology, but I did not decide on which story to believe yet regarding the issue of who came up with the idea to cover-up the truth.
IV - The Players' Statement
DDZ wrote his statement in Chinese, and his gf translated the message into English. It can be found on DDZ's Facebook wall here. Screenshot available here.
Key points presented in the statement:
DDZ and Lance admitted that they're guilty of matchfixing
The players as well as the two gfs involved offered their apologies to the tournament organizers
"we approached our management for help and we were advised to cover up for the sake of our reputation"
The Reddit post was written by Jaren in DDZ's name
V(a) - Jaren, Xiaoting & Hishiko's Involvement in the Cover-up
At the same time as the rest were working on the statement, Hishiko was also sending some screenshots of her chats with Jaren to the tournament organizers. Here is a compilation of everything she sent.
The first thing highlighted in red implied Xiangzai's involvement in the matchfixing itself. I'll talk about this in the later section titled "The Matchfixing".
The second thing highlighted in red and basically the conversation from then onwards showed that Jaren was not only aware of the cover-up, but was also part of the few who came up with it. I managed to obtain more proof about this here. This was a screenshot of the chat between Jaren and Hishiko on Skype that clearly shows the involvement of both parties in the cover-up story on Reddit.
Later on when I talked to Jaren about it he admitted to participating in the cover-up, but claimed that Xiaoting was the one who came up with the idea. Here's a screenshot of our chat about it.
Here are the proofs he sent, with screenshots of FB chats between Jaren & Xiaoting, with Jaren asking Xiaoting to "cough up good excuse" in order to cover up the crime, and the latter coming up with the idea of falsifying evidence later on: 1 and 2.
V(b) - My Own Views Regarding Said Parties' Involvements in the Cover-up
For the matter of the cover-up itself, my view is that both Xiaoting and Jaren have plenty of reasons to want to salvage their reputation from this incident - Jaren is the owner of Dota Talk and quite a number of SEA Dota 2 tournaments, and Xiaoting herself is a well-known personality in the Malaysian gaming scene. I was also told that Xiaoting was really worried about DDZ's reputation, because the matchfixing was discovered via her Steam account and she felt guilty about it. So given the evidence, I'd believe that both parties as well as Hishiko are involved and were just working together for the cover-up.
Regarding the players, I really do believe what they said in the statement of being "afraid and lost", "didn’t know what to do and how to react". I do have some screenshots given to me by their Assistant Team Manager showing that all 5 players met up with Jaren shortly before the cover-up post surfaced, but there is no evidence linking any of them directly to the Reddit post. For the case of DDZ's Facebook account sharing the Reddit post, I do know that both Xiaoting & Jaren have had access to his Facebook account.
As for Jaren, Xiaoting and Hishiko, I'd say it doesn't really matter who came up with the idea but as long as all of them had the motivation to do so and the evidence showed their involvement, I believe none of the parties can or should be considered innocent in this.
VI - The Matchfixing
I noticed in this screenshot of a chat between Hishiko & Jaren, that Xiangzai ("xz") might have also been part of the matchfixing itself. So I decided to investigate further about the involvement of members other than DDZ & Lance.
Here's what Xiaoting said earlier today in a FB chat group regarding the involvement of other players.
Later on I had a FB conversation with Matteru. In the chat he confessed that the entire Arrow Gaming team planned the matchfixing together, and that it is NOT linked to anyone from the Philippines.
Here's a quick translation of the chatlog:
Tiffani: Hi, want to ask if you have any evidence of you guys participating in the 322? you or xiangzai/mozun Matteru: I can't give evidence now, but we can admit it, after all we planned this together. Tiffani: Ok. Is this related to the PH people? Or did you guys come up with it on your own? Matteru: We came up with it on our own Tiffani: Ok thanks, be sure to forward me any screenshots of bets that you guys might have.
So I believe that all 5 players were indeed involved in the planning of and the matchfixing itself.
VII - Jaren's Threats
Following the release of the players' statement on Facebook yesterday evening, Jaren sent them threats via FB chat and for some verbally - for more information you can read it up in the 2p article here. Here's his threat via Facebook message to Lance.
Here's Jaren's post on the Arrow Gaming Facebook Page once again in response to the statement, alongside DDZ & Lance's termination letter.
Jaren has also been threatening the players and their girlfriends in a Facebook group chat since this morning, coercing them into supporting his version of the story and thus clearing his name.
VIII - Jaren, Dota Talk & his Fake "Official" Facebook Pages for Dota 2 Teams
You might be wondering why this section is included here - I feel the community & public deserves to know, and it might also help in your understanding of Jaren and his influence in SEA.
I've been doing quite a lot of investigations on the series of fake "Official" Facebook pages of Dota 2 teams for a while now. The reason why I started to look into it was when I was travelling with the then-Titan Dota 2 squad at TI4, on the bus I saw that Jaren (there as Arrow's manager) was posting on the infamous "Fake iG page" as one of the admins.
The fake pages are known for spreading questionable/false information to the Dota 2 community by acting like the organizations they impersonate: 1, 2, 3, 4.
They often share pay-per-click (1) and ad links (1, 2, 3) on their pages, and blatantly plagiarize contents for that purpose.
Most of the pages in the same network have a large number of SEA followings (1), so it is easy for the admins to spread and share information, regardless of whether they are true or false, within the SEA or greater Dota 2 community.
As I investigated further I realized that the pages were all similar & inter-linked in a way, i.e. they would share the same contents/links and share their own pages around, and as a result it wasn't hard to get the entire list.
Here is the list of fake pages.
And here are some screenshots proving Jaren's involvement in them: Proof 1, Proof 2, Proof 3.
These screenshots were obtained from their open Facebook group, the "Admins Centre", which controls this network of fake pages.
With the large followings Jaren is able to use these pages to manipulate the community to an extent, and him together with Nelson (owner and founder of the fake iG page) makes money from these pay-per-click websites.
And following Ren's Reddit thread, this was posted on the fake iG page. And this morning, we see this post that most likely came from Jaren, who's one of the admins.
I definitely do not believe in impersonation, plagiarism, manipulation of information & also earning money off the community who follows your page thinking you're representing their favourite team. I have also told by reliable sources that giveaways held on his Dota Talk pages were mostly given to ghost accounts made by Jaren himself, and he would sell the products from sponsors for money. Earlier on I've also confirmed with Sharky that Jaren has not paid out the prize money for the AMD D2M League which was in March.
IX - Lastly...
Here's a summary of my entire post:
The 5 players themselves, namely DDZ, Lance, Mozun, Xiangzaii and Matteru planned and committed the crime of matchfixing.
The girlfriends Xiaoting and Hishiko were involved as accomplices in the matchfixing itself, and later on as part of the team that worked on covering-up for the crime.
Jaren was part of, or led the cover-up, even though he denied his involvement initially.
Jaren owns and/or administrates a huge network of fake pages on Facebook, and we know from there that Jaren will and can manipulate others around him to achieve his goals. His continuous involvement in those fake pages also suggests an openness to deceit and manipulation that brings his character into question.
So I think it is fair to say that for the Arrow "322" incident itself, none of the involved parties are innocent. The tournament organizers and sponsors can decide what to do with the players. As for Jaren, I'll leave it up to the community to decide what we should do with him.
I know by exposing Jaren & his fake pages it's equivalent to attaching a target on my forehead, who knows if he might start throwing false claims or personal attacks my way. But despite all that I believe people deserve to know the truth. And the SEA scene will definitely be a much better place without people like Jaren, the Arrow Gaming organization, the fake pages and Dota Talk.
Note: I've also compiled a list of the real team pages for all SEA & Chinese teams with the help of Mali, Staka & other SEA managers/captains, and I will be posting a thread of the compilation on Reddit soon. Let's hope that despite the lack of help from Facebook, such fake pages will not prevail.