Bucharest Minor Closed Qualifier Invited teams:
— PGL (@pglesports) November 30, 2018
SA - Infamous Young Playmakers Esports
CIS - Team Empire Hope; Gambit Esports
SEA - Mineski; Boom ID
EU - Ninjas in Pyjamas; OG ; The Final Tribe
NA - TEAM TEAM ; compLexity Gaming ; Plus Ultra / EG
CN - Root ; EHOME ; RNG
Immediately the reaction was one of disbelief as Ninjas in Pyjamas received a direct invite ahead of Vega Squadron (EU) to the four-team closed qualifier — after Vega had performed better than NiP in the Major qualifiers, even beating them.
Where's Vega?
— Ben Steenhuisen (@followNoxville) November 30, 2018
paiN Gaming*’s Rasmus 'rASmus' Fillipsen was a little more forceful in his criticism:
What the hell is happening? How is Vega not invited? Why is it a 3 team qualifier for the minor? New outrageous shit every day, Dota is bleeding lately, we need to unite and create some proper rules and formats for ourselves.
— Rasmus Filipsen (@MiSeRyDOTA) November 30, 2018
Immediately Maurice 'KheZu' Gutmann — Vega’s captain — spoke up.
Interesting. in CIS they invited the 2 runner up teams from the playoffs (the 2 closest teams in the major qual to make it), they invited empire hope over Navi. in EU, they invited OG Tribe and NIP, eventhough we placed higher than NIP & beat them inthe quals, hello? @pglesports
— Maurice Gutmann (@KheZzu_) November 30, 2018
His counterpart on NiP, Peter 'ppd' Dager, seemed to agree in a reply:
yeah i dunno why they invited OG and TFT over you guys considering you have more DPC points than them... smh
— Peter Dager (@Peterpandam) November 30, 2018
Other members of the community became involved, with stats god Nahaz offering this reply to MISERY’s tweet:
Transparency and consistency can only come from Valve. We need a complete set of DPC rules. But my opinion really doesn’t matter. This will only be fixed if a sufficient number of high profile pro players rally the community and insist on it.
— Nahaz (@NahazDota) November 30, 2018
This all led to PGL announcing a change in the format for the EU qualifier, to include Vega. This meant they also added an extra slot from the Open Qualifier, meaning two teams will now make it through.
We are also inviting Vega Squadron to EU qualifiers . So the EU Closed Qualifiers will feature OG, NIP, TFT, VEGA and 2 teams from open qualifiers.
— PGL (@pglesports) November 30, 2018
With more and more instances of controversy arising, is it time for Valve to take greater control of the professional scene?
Header image: Jennika Ojala | DreamHack
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