Team Liquid and Team Secret pull out of Galaxy Battles II

Team Liquid and Team Secret are next among those that have opted to withdraw from participating in Galaxy Battles II after the event was stripped of Major status by Valve.

In a flurry of reactions, one day after Valve's decision to cancel their partnership with and remove Major status from Galaxy Battles 2018 Virtus.pro were the first to announce they would no longer participate in the event. Several hours later, the other two European Pro Circuit leaders have followed suit.

Team Secret has issued a formal statement:

“

With the withdrawal of Valve support from the tournament, Galaxy Battles is no longer an official Major in the Dota 2 Pro Circuit. As such, our organization and players will respectfully decline our qualification slot and withdraw our participation from this event.

The remainder of our schedule for January will remain in place with the Dota team heading to Malaysia later in the month for ESL One Genting. Hope to see you all there!”

Team Liquid have just simply stated their position on social media platforms.

Since Galaxy Battles is no longer considered to be a Major in the Dota Pro Circuit, organizers can still hold the event on their own but with a deduction of prize pool to at least $500,000 and removal of any qualifying points. It is expected that the event organizers will release a statement regarding the situation in the near future.

Galaxy Battles II directly invited teams:

Newbee
OG
TNC
Infamous
LGD.Forever Young
Evil Geniuses
Team Liquid (withdrawn)
Virtus.pro (withdrawn)

Galaxy Battles II qualified teams:

CIS 1 slot - Team Spirit
South East Asia 1 slot - Mineski
Europe 1 slot - Team Secret (withdrawn)
North America 1 slot - OpTic Gaming
China 1 slot - VGJ.Thunder
South America 1 slot - paiN Gaming
Wildcards 2 slots

Author

Cristy "Pandora" RamadaniPandora is a behind the scenes Dota 2 professional Jack of All Trades. When not busy with Dota 2 work, she is out trying to save the world or baking cupcakes. Follow her on Twitter @pandoradota2