K1 was made to miss beastcoast’s vital match against Thunder Awaken due to a sanction.
Valve and DPC South American 2021/2022 Tour 3: Division I organizer 4D esports have sanctioned beastcoast after Héctor Antonio "K1" Rodríguez made racist comments to Kim "Febby" Yong-min during a pub game. The sanctions were announced in a post on 4D Esport’s Twitter page following a brief explanation, and executed during their match against Thunder Awaken on July 15th.
As a result of the sanctions, beastcoast were forced to play with a substitute in their final game of the season against Thunder Awakening. Christian "Madara" Kimura replaced K1 for the match, a 2-0 losing effort. Prior to the match up, both teams were tied for first place, with a 5-1 record each. The loss threw beastcoast's Arlington Major hopes in disarray. Now the team finds itself in a make or break tiebreaker with Infamous over the final South American Major slot.
It’s unclear whether further punishment will be levied against beastcoast and K1. On July 13th, beastcoast announced it would be taking disciplinary action against K1. However, it’s unknown what this disciplinary action will be.
A blot on beastcoast’s and K1's record
Beastcoast have been one of the success stories of South American Dota 2, having had uncharacteristic success for the region over the past few years.
On July 12th, it emerged that K1 had used a racial epitaph against Febby during a ranked game. Febby had been streaming at the time, and the interaction was captured on steam. Footage of the incident quickly spread on social media, before beastcoast’s response on the 13th.
Febby also took to Twitter to express that K1 had sent him a sincere apology. While Febby’s acceptance of the apology shows his stature, the tweets reveal a darker acceptance of that kind of language. “I know It's very normal in dota to be toxic to your ranked teammates”
“I've been playing less dota more [Valorant] just cuz of the people.” A worrying normalization of the toxicit inherent in Dota 2.
K1 and beastcoast may end up paying a huge price for the incident. If they don’t manage to beat Infamous on Sunday, they’ll be the team that missed out the Arlington Major because of a penalty for a racial slur.