Quincy Crew was planning to compete with Milan Kozomara as a stand-in for its Dota 2 roster at the ONE Esports Singapore Major. But that’s no longer possible because his flight was canceled.
Team manager Jack “KBBQ” Chen confirmed today that Milan was supposed to fly into Singapore from Belgrade, Serbia, but his flight was canceled for technical reasons while the plane was already in the air.
Milan would have taken the spot of Arif “MSS” Anwar, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week and was deemed unable to travel.
This was the same flight that Nikola “LeBronDota” Popović was taking, with plans for him to stand-in for Natus Vincere after the roster’s coach and original substitute, Andrey “Mag” Chipenko, also contracted COVID-19 ahead of the event. Na’Vi ended up withdrawing from the event entirely due to further COVID concerns and the limited time remaining to work around other complications.
KBBQ said that Milan “traveled for hours across national borders” to make that flight but will no longer be able to attend the event because of the short turnaround to the first match. The team is now waiting on further authorization for stand-ins that could be eligible to travel at the last minute to the Major or are within the area and can play with QC.
Both Na’Vi and outside reports have confirmed that Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev, who was originally supposed to stand-in for Na’Vi at the event, is already on his way to Singapore to compete. He no longer has a team to play with and is basically a top-level substitute readily available to fill a roster spot for the Major.
RAMZES has already received formal permission to play in the event, so QC might just end up playing with him in a strange role if no other options are available.
The ONE Esports Singapore Major will kick off on March 27.
