Chongqing Major: Will Kuku and Skem get banned?

posted by kristinvonb,

Carlo 'Kuku' Palad and Rolen Andrei Gabriel 'ctm' Ong caused an outcry in the Dota 2 scene due to recent racist comments. Now it seems they might face additional consequences and miss the upcoming major. The drama surrounding Kuku and Skem doesn't seem to be ending just yet. The two Filipino players sparked outrage on the Dota 2 scene when they made racist remarks directed at Chinese players in the beginning of November.

The two apologized shortly after the incidents wherein Skem subsequently received a "maximum fine" enforced by his team compLexity Gaming and found himself benched only a couple of days later.

Dimitri Vallette, Director of Esports at Mars Media, stated that Chinese teams are now refusing to practice with Filipino organisations because of the incidents.

A Chinese team will no longer practice with a team from Southeast Asia after one of the players from the SEA used the word “Ching Chong” in a SEA pub.

This honestly has to stop... the “I say racist things” followed by “I’m sorry” and “everything is good now” needs to stop.
— Dimitri Vallette (@GodBlessMali) 2. November 2018

What seems to have been a relatively minor incident to some Dota 2 players, has caused anger and frustration to others especially in the Chinese scene.

Examples of teams expressing solidarity include Team Aster who've decided to attach the word "Respect" to their ingame names thereby making a statement.

Valve's statement

Even Valve reacted to the incident and have since published an official statement: "We think it is really damaging to the entire Dota community whenever even a single professional player uses discriminatory language", it reads.

"Going forward, we expect all teams who participate in our tournaments to hold its players accountable, and be prepared to follow up with strong punishments when players represent Dota and its community poorly", Valve continues.

Banned from TI9?

Nobody really expected that the first of these "strong punishments" might be happening so soon.

BeyondTheSummit founder David 'Godz' Parker tweeted earlier, that Chinese organizers are pushing for a ban on Kuku and Skem that would exclude them from participating in the Chongqing Major, which is to be held in China.

So, rumor has it that the China organizers/govt involved in the Chongqing major are pushing a ban on Kuku and Skem from participating...

Will be interesting to see if/how valve step in.
— David Parker | Godz (@BTSGoDz) 23. November 2018

Only a couple of hours later Team Secrets Director of Operations, Matthew 'Cyborgmatt' Bailey stated on Twitter, that both players will be banned from participating at the event

Apparently their respective organisations were contacted prior to the event and were asked if they wanted to replace the Fillipino players. Cyborgmatt even wonders if the controversial pair might even miss TI9, which is also to be held in China.

Waiting for an official statement

From where Cyborgmatt obtained this information is unclear, but compLexity's General Manager Kyle Bautista has denied that the organisation has been asked to kick out or replace the players.

It's not a rumor. Skemberlu and Kuku are both banned from attending the Chongqing Major. Col and TNC were both contacted prior to the event and were asked if they wanted to kick the players.

There is still a chance that this ban can be extended and block them from attending TI9.
— Matthew Bailey (@Cyborgmatt) 24. November 2018

Furthermore Bautista explained he hasn't been contacted by any major organizers of any upcoming events and hopes that Valve will be giving another official statement soon.

Whether Skem and Kuku will actually end up getting banned is entirely unclear at this point. joinDOTA will keep you updated as the situation evolves.