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Teams cutting corners, relocating to “weaker” regions. Should Valve address the issue?
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Teams cutting corners, relocating to “weaker” regions. Should Valve address the issue?

April 22nd, 2015 Cristy "Pandora" Ramadani Controversy 0 comments

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With TI invites and qualifiers around the corner and many major LAN tournament qualifiers underway, the issue has been raised about team regional status and what criteria is used to determine appropriate placement of teams. For instance, Team Tinker – consisting of two North-American players and three European ones, has been competing as a North-American team since their establishment. Many people feel that some regions are, in fact, a lot weaker, and that Valve should regulate the regional aspect and not allow teams to relocate from one region to another, based on which particular one serves their interest better.

I will be very disappointed if the #TI5 Qualifiers are done online & regionally based. Tier invites/competitive setup pic.twitter.com/b5o16UEjLE

— Toby Dawson (@TobiWanDOTA) April 21, 2015

If Tinker's allowed to play in TI5 America qualifier does that mean any team like NiP/Navi also can if they bootcamp for a month in the US?

— David GoDz Parker (@BTSGoDz) April 21, 2015

The Debates

Based on the two tweets in one day, much speculation has transgressed regarding The International 5 invites, teams and the regions they belong to. The tweets prompted some interesting debate and highlighted loopholes in rules that teams could take advantage of.

Visas and residency requirements

@braxlikesdota he "lives" there? I'd be surprised if he's there on more than a 3-6 month tourist visa.

— David GoDz Parker (@BTSGoDz) April 21, 2015

@braxlikesdota yeap, blizzard have official policy that force players to prove they live in those regions to be eligible.

— David GoDz Parker (@BTSGoDz) April 21, 2015

@team_empire @LDdota @braxlikesdota @BTSGoDz This year you need to have a work visa where you did not last year, so it's fairly significant

— Matt Weber (@RealHeyoka) April 21, 2015

@LDdota @braxlikesdota @BTSGoDz 1 month before, i would say not, but 3 months? 6? more? It's hard to say what would be best

— Tyler Cook (@TCDota) April 21, 2015

History of regional oddities

Team Tinker case

The original version of the team had a mainly EU-based roster. During an “Ask Me Anything” Reddit session with Alex Garfield – owner of North American company GoodGame Agency, it was announced that Team Tinker would be the organization’s third Dota 2 squad. With the new roster consisting of two North-American players and three European ones, Team Tinker has been participating in North-American regional qualifiers and events. They’ve only recently set up a team house in Canada, where all of the players except for Max “qojqva” Bröcker are currently living, after having played as a NA team since they’re establishment.

Questions raised:

Are Team Tinker entitled to play as a North-American team, with only two out of the five players being in fact of North-American nationalities?

Should the fact that GoodGame Agency, the organization that owns Team Tinker, is a North-American based company be a decisive factor in this issue?

Team Tinker’s initial roster

Netherlands Weh Sing “SingSing” Yuen
Sweden Steve “Excalibur” Ye
Sweden Per Anders “Pajkatt” Olson Lille
Germany Max “qojqva” Bröcker
United States Sam “BuLba” Sosale

Team Tinker’s current roster

Germany Dominik “Black^” Reitmeier
Germany Max “qojqva” Bröcker
United States Sam “BuLba” Sosale
Canada Peter “Waytosexy” Nguyen
Sweden Johan “pieliedie” Åström

Zephyr and Rave cases

Zephyr (American team) and Rave (Filipino team) moved to Korea in order to compete. The teams both played as SEA region teams representing South Korea. Team Rave has had some issues regarding their location and “employment status” overseas, resulting in examination of the law and involvement of Philippine Overseas Employment Agency.

Rave roster
Canada Jio “Jeyo” Madayag”
Philippines Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa
Philippines Djardel “Chrissy” Mampusti
Philippines Mark “cast” Pilar
United States Michael “ninjaboogie” Ross

Zephyr roster

United States Corey “Corey” Wright
Australia Trent “sLiCKz” Tucker
Singapore Nicholas “xFreedom” Ileto Lim
United States William “Blitz” Lee
United States Steven “Eosin” Cheng

Former Players
United States Ben “Merlini” Wu
United States Kevin “Purge” Godec

Cloud 9 case

Originally, Cloud 9 consisted of two NA players and three EU players supported by a NA-based organization. Last year, there was some debate about Cloud 9’s habit of “flip-flopping” between NA and EU qualifiers, based on which particular qualifier served their interest better. Now C9’s roster consists of only one NA player and four EU players, no longer causing any controversy in their regional selections.

Cloud 9 previous roster

Sweden Johan “pieliedie” Åström
Netherlands Weh Sing “SingSing” Yuen
Canada Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao
Canada Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling
Romania Pittner “bOne7” Armand

Cloud 9 current roster

Canada Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao
Germany Adrian “FATA-“ Trinks
Romania Pittner “bOne7” Armand
Denmark Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein
Denmark Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen

Why this matters

Many feel that specific regions are much weaker in team constitution and performance and other regions are “top heavy” with stronger and more stable teams. Relocation for some teams would provide them with an advantage they did not previously enjoy in a region that was more difficult to compete in.

As Toby “TobiWan” Dawson stated: “Godz made a point about regional abuse flagging Team Tinker as one of those teams that might be doing it. This isn’t really a new thing as the WCS (Starcraft 2 major event) had the same issue with Koreans coming to a weaker region to make qualification easier. The end goal is to have the greatest teams that deserve the slot to get the slot. While you want a good balance of all regions, the system is open to manipulation.”

@BTSGoDz if this goes through you can only imagine how TI6 will be with top teams relocating for qualifiers

— Jimmy Ho (@DotaDeMoN) April 21, 2015

Possible Solutions

Toby points out a possible solution:

A tier system (which most tournament like ESL, BTS and MLG are already using) helps seed teams that have proven themselves in previous events, then you add an open qualifier to come in at the lowest seed. This gets a good balance from all regions while making sure people get a chance to compete/prove themselves.

Valve to decide?

According to David “GodZ” Parker, it should be up to Valve to decide the outcome. However, Valve has been steering clear of any responsibility.

@yanmew valve decide not us

— David GoDz Parker (@BTSGoDz) April 22, 2015

Nothing against Tinker or Zephyr and what they are doing/did, just curious where Valve will draw the line with region locking TI qualifiers.

— David GoDz Parker (@BTSGoDz) April 22, 2015

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Cristy "Pandora" Ramadani

Pandora is a behind the scenes Dota 2 professional Jack of All Trades ranging from team manager, social media staff, business consultant, board of director member, visa guru, Garter's waifu. When not busy with Dota 2 work, she is out trying to save the world or baking cupcakes. Follow her on Twitter @pandoradota2

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