The Chongqing Major South America qualifier winners, test 123—formerly called Pain X—will not move on to the Dota 2 Pro Circuit Chongqing Major as representatives of the region. Following the win, Dota 2 developer Valve announced that test 123 has been disqualified and the third-place winner, Thunder Predator, will take their slot.
The roster, which is made up North American-based players, traveled to the region to play in the qualifiers and returned back to North America instead of staying in the region, which is against the spirit of a regional qualifier. Valve said it was contacted three months ago by the team to inquire about the possibility—and Valve said it would be against the rules. Test 123 player Rodrigo Lelis replied to the disqualification by saying the message was “poorly communicated.”
Related: Four teams just qualified for the Chongqing Major
“The reasons for guaranteed spots for each region is because we want to help nurture competitive growth in different regions, as well as have regional representative for fans around the world,” Valve wrote in its disqualification notice. “We think it’s important for fans to be able to see their regions grow, and their teams compete in global events. A team temporarily traveling to and from a region just to compete in the qualifiers clearly does not provide any meaningful benefit to the region, and harms growth overall.”
Valve added that teams that continue to try to “bend the rules on this to gain a competitive advantage over other teams” risks disqualification, like test 123.
It’s not the only problem Valve and tournament organizer StarLadder Dota 2 faced at the South American qualifiers, though. South American team Playmakers Esports was disqualified from the tournament early on for breaking the rules. In a game against Infamous Young, the team played a substitute who wasn’t listed on an official roster, but claimed it was Colombian player Jhoam Sebastian “Mogur” Molina Garcia. Mogur was actually playing in another tournament, the World Electronic Sports Games 2018 Americas qualifier, with Team Colombia at the time.
The two teams moving on to the Chongqing Major are paiN Gaming and Thunder Predator.
