A pro Dota 2 player is claiming that he had to play a full Dota match in front of police officers to prove his identity.

According to Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon, who currently plays hard carry for Xipto eSports, the team’s boot camp in Kuala Lumpur was raided by police Sunday evening. In a post made on Facebook Monday night, 23savage describes the police placing the team in handcuffs and confiscating their belongings.

The officers proceeded to interrogate the players about why they were in the city and whether they were really pro players. According to 23savage, one of the officers was familiar with Dota, and was willing to scroll the player’s Instagram for proof of his pro career.

A photo 23savage had recently posted of himself and popular Malaysian influencer Ms. Puiyi was, according to the post, somewhat acceptable evidence. Enough evidence, in fact, for the police officers to remove his handcuffs and test what really mattered: how good he is at defending the ancients.

23savage proceeded to start up a Dota match right in front of the police officers, dropping 32 kills as the hard carry Kez. The Dota player alleges that this was enough proof to convince the officers to let the team go, and also that they stole two jars of Nutella on their way out.

Commenters on the post quickly doubted 23savage’s claims, presuming the post to be a joke, but 23savage has been actively defending his story in the replies. Reddit users continue to doubt the hard carry player, while others jokingly claim 23savage’s story is saving Valve’s MOBA.

The incident doesn’t seem to have had much impact on Xipto, who have been climbing the ranks of SEA Dota. The team recently won the EPL SEA tournament without losing a single series, achieving an impressive 10-match win streak. The team’s full roster currently consists of 23savage (Carry), inYourdreaM (Mid), Fbz (Offlane), Q (Support), and Oli (Support), who are now competing for a spot in the DreamLeague Season 30 tournament.

Dota 2 itself has been seeing some notable player gains in 2026, having recently hit its peak player count since 2022. The game continues to receive occasional patches and content updates, though Valve’s focus is largely now on a new MOBA: Deadlock.

Blythe (she/her) is an Audience Development Coordinator at IGN who spends way too much time in character customization screens and tracking down collectibles.