Western European qualifiers for The International 2024 spark controversy in the Dota 2 community as one of the favourite teams exits the competition.
OG were regarded as one of the main favourites at one of the two slots up for grabs in the region for the most important tournament of the year. However, ahead of their upper bracket semifinals against entity, the team had played with Aleksandra "Immersion" Khmelevskoi standing in for Sébastien "Ceb" Debs. By the end of the day, OG revealed that Ceb might miss the next series as well, as he was about to become a father and the team would be forced to forfeit their spot.
According to OG, PGL, the tournament organiser, did not see Ceb’s situation as special and did not want to make any exceptions from the rule book. Per tournament rules, there were two options: either Ceb would play the lower bracket series or OG would be disqualified.
Ceb did show up for the game, but understandably so, the OG cohesion lacked for what was one of their most important series. Numerous individual and team-play mistakes led to a 0-2 loss in front of NAVI Junior, who are now two series away from potentially delivering the biggest upset in the WEU qualifiers.
While many of the Dota 2 community members, including teams that are currently playing in the WEU qualifiers stood by OG and asked PGL to allow them to continue their road to TI with a stand-in, PGL did not make any official statements regarding the situation.
Interestingly enough, OG had also shared on X.com that back in May, when the TI qualifiers details were announced, the team also asked PGL to be allowed to start the qualifiers straight with a stand-in, but they were denied this option too.
More details on how the entire conversation went between OG and PGL will likely be revealed in the qualifiers' aftermath, when Ceb is expected to make a more detailed statement.
In the meantime, WEU closed qualifiers for The International 2024 continue with just four teams left to battle it out for the two tickets to Copenhagen. NAVI Junior are in the lower bracket semifinal waiting for their adversary to be decided in the Team Secret vs PSG Quest elimination series, while the upper bracket finals Tundra vs Entity will give us the first team from the region to secure a spot at TI13
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