Valve imposes sanction on the NA squad
Image Banner © VGJ. Storm
VGJ.Storm was slapped with a sanction after Valve found out that they used two coaches for their The International 2018 group stage drafts instead of one.
The decision was publicized in a tweet posted by the official DOTA 2 account earlier today. The tweet cited how the teams were allowed to have five players and one coach in the competition room during the draft—a rule which was clearly violated by the North American representative
Today we learned that VGJ.Storm had used two coaches during their group stage drafts. When we asked VGJ.Storm, they said that they asked a PGL employee if they could have more in the draft, and he told them that he doesn't care as long as they left at the end of the draft. (1/4)
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) August 18, 2018
When asked about VGJ.Storm’s side, the organization stated that they were allowed by an employee of PGL, the grand Dota 2 showdown’s organizers, as long as both of the coaches leave after the draft.
Regarding the coach situation: we were not sure if two coaches would be allowed during the draft. There’s no ruleset where this is written, there are no rules in general beyond format. Because we were uncertain about it, we asked a PGL admin, who checked with a higher-up (1/2)
— Jack Chen (@KBBQDotA) August 18, 2018
Valve defined the incident as a ‘misunderstanding’ while highlighting the significance of following instructions. As a punishment for their negligence, VGJ.Storm will be will be playing against OG in the first series of the main event without a coach and will receive level two draft time penality.
VGJ.Storm ended up as the top seed of Group B after ending the four-day group stage with an impressive 12-4 win-loss record. They will be starting their main event campaign on August 21, 2018 at 1:00 SGT.
