When it comes to prize money, DOTA 2 tournaments kill it. The International 2018, set to take place in August, has a prize pool of a staggering $15 million. With that amount up for grabs, one can think that some might use unscrupulous means to get their hands on the prize money.

Motherboard reports that a Peruvian team, Thunder Predator, has been recently disqualified from making their way to The International, with one of their players caught using macros on his mouse. Player Atún, using a Razer Synapse 3 gaming mouse and playing the character Meepo, managed to shift his Meepo clones in a way that seems impossible, except when using a macro. By programming a number of moves into the mouse button, players can click the button once and execute the moves – something that Atún appears to have done and which is not allowed.

The organisation that ran the tournament, FACEIT, disqualified the team, noting that using the programmable key is tantamount to running a software script, something forbidden in its rules.

Thunder Predator isn't happy of course. Posting on the Facebook page, they denounce the accusation, stating, “at no time, our player 'Atún' use any type of hack or particular program that facilitated his game mode before the match”. The explanation then? The team said off-the-shelf functionality of the mouse was used. They also claim, “people of an offensive and malicious character appear to harm, not only one player, but the entire team itself.”

With Peru out of the Football World Cup, the team will take on Australia today. Hopefully the football team won't pull any fouls like Thunder Predator....