Brett Molina

USA TODAY

A competitive video gaming team from Harvard University was disqualified from a tournament featuring the game Heroes of the Storm for "violating several tournament rules."

In a statement, Blizzard Entertainment, makers of Heroes of the Storm, and fellow tournament organizer Tespa announced Team Ambush from Harvard was removed from the ongoing Heroes of the Dorm event.

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An investigation found one of the members of the team shared his account for Battle.net -- the online service run by Blizzard for its game including Heroes and others like World of Warcraft -- with a higher-rated player not on their roster during the tournament.

"We have zero tolerance for cheating in our tournaments," reads a joint statement from Blizzard and Tespa. "The rules are in place to ensure a fair playing field for all participants—when these rules are abused, they put the integrity of the competition at risk."

All accounts connected to the situation will face disciplinary actions, says Blizzard.

Harvard had managed to reach the round of 16 in Heroes of the Dorm before the cheating was discovered. Blizzard coordinated with losing teams from the University of California Berkeley and Indiana University -- Purdue University Indianapolis to play a second-round match to replace Harvard. The match was won by the Berkeley team.

This is second disqualification during this year's tournament for cheating. A group from the University of Michigan was also disqualified in an earlier round for swapping accounts.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.