American Goons can continue to compete in Division II of NA DPC.
A whirlwind of events recently occurred in the North American (NA) Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). On May 26, PGL, the organizer for NA DPC, announced an abrupt disqualification against American Goons due to bets and matchfixing.
However, the team and the community spoke up against the "uninformed decision" and their lack of solid evidence. Early this morning on May 27, PGL announced that it had reversed the punishment after "careful reconsideration".
Upon receiving new information, we have thoroughly reassessed our initial verdict and have ultimately chosen to overturn the decision previously made. As a result, the American Goons will be reinstated, and their position in the tournament will be fully restored.
Here's a detailed breakdown of what happened in the past two days.
A simple "ye" led American Goons to chaos
American Goons comprises notable NA players: Noah "boris" Minhas, Jose "esK" Coronel, Nick "Lil_Nick" Hartzler, Sahil "Giant" Bhawtankar, and Andrew "pingu" Romanof. They participated in the NA qualifiers and successfully grabbed the second promotion to Division II.
However, a team they defeated in the Lower Bracket, Gatekept, was unsatisfied with the result. They had contacted players on American Goons to ask whether they lost the upper bracket game against GRIN Esports on purpose as they believed that American Goons is a better team. To this message, one of them replied "ye".
This was apparently taken as evidence of betting and matchfixing which caused American Goons to be disqualified and lose their slot in NA Division II.
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The community fires back
American Goons defended themselves against this unexpected punishment. Not only that, a handful of personalities also backed up the players and requested PGL to reconsider the ban.
TI winner, Peter "ppd" Dager, told PGL to "slow down" and fix the issue.
Caster and player, Andrew "Jenkins" Jenkins, commented on the situation: "real life is parody at this point".
Two-time TI champion, Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, also posted his thoughts regarding the ban, stating that he'll have to insert /s (an indicator for sarcasm) in his Steam messages from now on.
PGL retracts punishment against American Goons
Following the backlash, PGL posted an update to the situation. The tournament organizer decides to reassess its initial verdict after receiving "new information" and ultimately reversed the disqualification. This is a relief for American Goons as they can return to compete in Division II for Tour 3 DPC.
Pos 5 player for American Goons thanked the community for the support.
We'll keep you updated with more Dota 2 news. Until then, stay tuned to Esports.gg.
