Understandably, the prime motivation for those guilty is the lack of proper funding and adequate infrastructure that often accompany the mediocre to low tier participants of an infant industry such as Dota 2. Many a times players would be forced to play hands that are along the wrong side of law in order to merely ensure they can live for another day. Furthermore,the act of match-fixing has no justification to it no matter how different ones perspective is when looking at such a situation. After all, professionals are such named precisely because they would do anything to excel in their field.
However, even though one cannot argue on the justifiability of match-fixing. One can at least spare the culprits the heavy punishment and ridicule due to a number of factors. As said above, the fact that money was the prime motivator highlights the fact that part of the liability has to be shared by the gaming organization in that they have failed to secure adequate funding to provide for an efficient support system for a regular professional Dota 2 squad.
Also, this incident serves to show how much improvement the Dota 2 industry needs in terms of sustaining a playing field that is growing more rapidly than ever before. Perhaps Valve should introduce a scheme where every pro player that manages to fulfill certain criteria will get a set amount of money annually to cover living expenses like what is done in League of Legends.
That being said, to find the root of the financial problem of the industry, we will need to look at other thriving sports industries and see how they succeed to support their superstars to their low-tier participants (good examples include BPL, NBA...). As we compare, the main difference seen is the amount of revenue they get from just coverage of the matches and advertising, instead of prize money, which is often the case with infant sports industries such as Dota 2, where viewer demand is not high and it is really hard for new people to learn about the game. BPL teams like Liverpool can encounter years of trophy drought but still rake in millions as the demand lies in the BRAND of Liverpool, not its quality. Pretty much like how buying Louis Vuitton boots are cost more even though a pair of Timberlands would probably do a better job insulating the feet.
Therefore, a solution would be for Valve to create more awareness of the game through extensive advertising and marketing campaigns while personally handing out annual funds to the many pro teams out there. There could also be a pro-rata structure where the better teams will get less due to them winning most of the prize money up for grabs. This 2 pronged approach will sustain the lives of the pros while ensuring demand for Dota 2 increases. Simply said, gaming teams must be brought to a level where winning and losing is not the seperating block between living properly and living in poverty.
Besides that, gaming peripheral companies should really take the 322 incident as a wake up call and step up their sponsoring activities or risk a drop in demand if other games encounter such problems due to financial problems. GP companies have to really understand the amount of value these gaming teams create for their brands. If we see Adidas paying millions so that sports teams will wear their apparels and equipment, why can't we see GP companies paying just a bit more to esports teams?
All in all, Valve and the other prominent players of this industry will have to fork out more cash so that the future of Dota 2 can be ensured and growth can be protected.
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