A Dota 2 team consisting of several former match-fixers secured their spot in the Malaysia Esports League (MESL) Grand Finals last weekend.

Highground emerged victorious in the Melaka qualifying round to stand a chance to win a slice of a RM500,000 prize pool.

However, the team raised eyebrows because four of the members, namely Goh "MoZuN-" Choo Jian, Kok "ddz" Yi Liong, Kelvin "MtR" Chong and Fua "Lance" Hsien Wan, were caught involved in a match-fixing scandal in 2014, which saw them being banned from all Valve competitions.

Despite their match-fixing past, MESL director of operation Leon Lee explained it should not prevent them from entering the tournament.

"We have been looking into this matter even before the MESL was officially announced," Lee told Stadium Astro.

"Mineski Events Team (MET) Malaysia decided to lift the ban and offer these players a pardon for them to participate in the MESL.

"These players are vastly talented and they have repented and regretted their past actions, so we feel that they should deserve a second chance."

Lee also added that the MESL has zero tolerance for match-fixing and will not hesitate to take action against those committing the offence.

"An individual or a team found allegations of match-fixing will be banned from the MESL and all MET esports tournaments," he said.

"We will have our fraud prevention team proactively monitoring betting patterns for any suspicious betting patterns and odds fluctuations."

Other teams to qualify for the Grand Finals at the time of writing are 818' Reverse Heaven, Fire Dragoon and Penang winner PenangHunter.