Arkosh Gaming has been handed down penalties by ESL Dota 2 for having three players outside of the region in the DPC 2021-22 Season Winter Tour.
It was just the other day that we were all pondering if Arkosh Gaming was the NA protagonist or antagonist.
It seems as the squad that was intended to inject increased viewership and interest in the region has been playing with three of the five members residing outside of the region.
As the roster is comprised of talent, it is no secret regarding their whereabouts. BSJ and Jenkins have most recently been/are in Europe and Kyle is in Ukraine. And that means they are already playing at disadvantage with high ping and odd hours.
Most fans believe that the rule was meant to keep players from trying to compete in weaker regions and that it shouldn't apply to Arkosh as their talent is working outside of the region they are residents of. They support the intent/spirit of the law vs the letter of the law.
Others do feel that Arkosh should not be able to get any more favoritism from Valve and should accept the penalty and play by the rules. Arksoh already receives additional perks and attention such as the casters dressing up in the organization's theme for their games or extra air time to push selling their ingame skins.
According to sources, the penalty has come down from Valve, but in researching the new DPC rules for the year, the previous 3/5 player residing in the region rule has been removed. This year, it makes no mention of any such rules.
But if there is no written rule anymore regarding this, was any law broken? Without the explicit information written on the public website, does that mean all of the teams are playing by the same rules or aware of them?
Last season Alliance came under fire for utilizing their new strategic coach Peter ‘PPD’ Dager in the team's communication channels, helping guide the team during the official matches. This was something that was allowed per an email that was sent by the TO to all participating teams before the start of the season. But it still caused quite a stir and enough backlash from other teams that had not read their emails or were aware.
At this point, it is hard to continue to let it slide that there is not a DPC rulebook that outlines all the specifics for ALL of the regions accessible to everyone.
As of now, Arkosh Gaming is tied for 6th place in the 1st division with a 1:3 series/2:7 game record. They won their last series 2:1 vs BNY just this week. Their next series will be January, 6th at 0:00 CET against simply TOOBASED.
