A Morphling bug could affect the results of The International 2018 finals

Not long after The International 2018 finals concluded, there appeared an interesting thread on Reddit saying that one bug in the Dota 2 client might have affected the results of the game. The topic starter said this serious Morphling bug was in the game for months. The point is that due to incorrect mechanics Morphling starts losing points of his stats. And many of them! 

Reddit user refers to screenshots from the Chinese website maxija that clearly show how PSG.LGD player, Wang "Ame" Chunyu, encountered the bug on the fifth map of the TI8 finals. Playing on Morphling, Ame lost 46 stat points. 

Source: reddit.com

The attached images demonstrate that on level 25 Morphling should have 188 points of STR and AGI combined, given the game works properly. At the same time, you can see that Ame had only 142 stat points on level 25 during the final map between OG and PSG.LGD. Of course, we’re talking about basic attributes heroes get at level up, excluding bonuses from artifacts. 

Now, the weirdest thing is that people knew about the bug for three months. Since May users created new threads on Reddit telling Valve that Morphling doesn’t get a proper stats gain levels up while using his ultimate. Moreover, leveling up while Morph is active, the hero even loses one STR point getting weaker, not stronger. 

However, Valve did not fix this bug before The International 2018 finals, despite the fact that community noticed, figured out and then reported it. Does it mean the TI8 results are not valid now? Well, that’s not for us to decide. But the fact such a serious bug was in a match where teams fought for more than $10,000,000 doesn’t paint Valve in a good light. 

It is also worth mentioning that OG’s midplayer Topson played on Morphling in the final’s third map. And after checking, he lost a few dozens of stats points as well. It’s also possible that both teams were most likely aware of the bug but still picked the hero to play.