Yang “Chalice” Shenyi accused IO Esports and Epulze of being biased and blaming Azure Ray for BetBoom’s instant loss and Pure’s ban at the Dota 2 Bali Major during a live broadcast on July 16. The offlane star said his team asked the organizers to do it but provided more details on the context leading up to it, which was driven by frustration aimed at the organizers for their incompetence.
Chalice explained that his team were furious with the organizers for punishing them after Nouns accused them of exploiting a bug, which didn’t end up being true and was later revoked. Then, to make matters worse, the organizers mistakenly announced Azure Ray had chosen to play BetBoom instead of Tundra Esports and refused to overturn their decision.
To get back at them for their incompetence, Chalice said they told them to follow the rules and punish BetBoom after Pure was spotted watching a livestream of their game during a pause. Their primary motive was to embarrass the organizers by forcing them to right another wrong stemming from an oversight, not to get the upper hand over BetBoom. They even asked the organizers to let BetBoom stay in the Upper Bracket, but it didn’t happen.
Chalice said the organizers didn’t tell BetBoom about that part. Instead, they blamed them for the whole thing and made it seem like their intentions were malicious and opportunistic when they weren’t.
A translation of his comments circulated on the Dota 2 subreddit, and the community was quick to sympathize with him given how critical it had already been over how poorly the event was run.
“What a fuck up. No surprise at all,” one player said. “An organizer passing blame to the competitor is pretty embarrassing. It’s like they have no control whatsoever with their rules,” another added. Some even said IO Esports and Epulze shouldn’t be allowed to run anymore.
The Riyadh Masters 2023 is the next event on the horizon, and it’s the last one before The International 2023. IO Esports and Epulze aren’t involved in either of them, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.
