Old G’s division two run in the Western European Dota Pro Circuit has come to a bitter end after Topson and his team were disqualified from their tiebreaker match due to suddenly not being able to field a valid lineup.
It’s a decision Ceb made very clear he’s not happy about on April 26.
Prior to the tiebreaker, two Old G members, Resolut1on and Kitrakwere, were called in as stand-ins for teams having visa issues at the Berlin Major. After being two players down due to unforeseen circumstances, Old G players expected there would be an exception to the stand-in rule for the tiebreakers, but that wasn’t the case.
PGL admins decided to go by the Dota 2 rule book, and doing so relegated Old G from the second division. While the rules were technically clear and on PGL’s side, the whole situation stirred up a debate; Valve made exceptions in the past when teams found themselves in unexpected situations causing them to play with stand-ins.
Amidst the decision, Ceb blamed PGL admins for providing “zero care and help.” According to the two-time TI champion, PGL simply threw the rulebook to Old G’s face over and over again instead of coming up with a solution.
Aside from the stand-in situation, the fact tiebreakers were scheduled at the same time when Berlin Major was live meant Resolut1on and Kitrak had no chance of playing in their division two matches. If the tiebreakers were rescheduled to another time, Old G could still play the tiebreakers with its entire roster, but now they’ll be walking to an unknown future since relegation often causes teams to disband immediately.
At the time of publication, Old G has not made any roster changes.