Dota 2 eSports league suspended after players hit by DDoS attacks

G-1, the Chinese Dota 2 league, has been suspended by organisers 17173, following a series of DDoS attacks that caused players to disconnect during their games. The attacks began on Sunday, affecting players from Team Dignitas, Evil Geniuses and Kaipi. 17173 say they are working to rectify the issues, and have sought technical advice from Valve.

"Over the past few days, matches on the DOTA2 European servers have been faced with a serious series of DDoS attacks from unknown sources, which has caused players to continuously disconnect and ultimately made it impossible to carry on the competition," writes a G-1 spokesperson on Reddit . "In light of the current situation, 17173 and 2P.com have decided to postpone the G-1 Western Qualifiers while waiting for advice on technical solutions from Valve.

"What next? We've shared a guide with all the teams in the G-1 Western Qualifiers yesterday on steps to take to prevent DDoS attacks. Additionally, communications are established with Valve, reporting what has happened in the past few days of G-1 Champions League, along with related details regarding what we know about the as-yet unidentified DDoS attacker(s)."

Sunday's attack forced a mass disconnect from members of Evil Geniuses, with admins ultimately declaring their opponents Absolute Legends the winners due to their in-game advantage at the time.

While the source of the attacks isn't known, one 4Chan poster claimed responsibility, saying it was to prevent him losing a $20,000 bet. This is 4Chan though, so pinch of salt and all.

It'll be interesting to see what measures and recommendations G-1's organisers implement to halt future attacks. Certainly this isn't the first time players have been hit by a DDoS. Ultimately, it seems teams and organisers are going to need to be more rigorous in their protection of players IP addresses - taking steps to make them less easily accessible.

Thanks, PCGamesN .