ComeWithMe: “It’s great to know we have a partner in Valve, in our hour of need”

With the Fall Major 2016 team registration process underway, the drop period ended on September 4th, causing quite a stir in the scene. Several players had not been released from their former teams on time and became locked for the upcoming season. Valve’s vague wording regarding the specific deadline for the drop and oversight on the part of teams and players were to blame for the situation. After players and teams reached out, Valve stepped in to settle the predicament.

Valve took action and settled team registration issues affecting Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu, Sébastien “7ckingMad” Debs, Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin, and Juan “Sora” Torres – among others.

Each of these players had missed the Fall Major season registration drop deadline. Most prominently, Kaipi and ProDota Gaming – both teams which had been showing strong and promising results as of late – were heavily affected by the crisis.

The captain of Kaipi, Armand “bOne7” Pittner missed the drop deadline by merely hours. Consequently, ComeWithMe and 7ckingMad became locked into Kaipi’s roster. For ComeWithMe, this meant he could not be added to ProDota Gaming or any other roster for the season.

Both Kaipi and ProDota were gazing down the barrel of the infamous best-of-one open qualifiers, regardless of recent results. ProDota were even considering disbandment.

In a statement for DotaBlast, Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu explains the situation, giving thanks to IceFrog for his guidance and Valve for their help.

I contacted IceFrog and he referred me to a department that focuses on these kinds of problems. I emailed them on behalf of Kaipi and ProDota, all members included. I told them that we ended up in a very bad situation, that could have potentially ruined both teams. ProDota was very likely to disband and Kaipi were also in a very sensitive situation. After I parted ways with Kaipi, they removed me from their Skype group and I assumed they would remove me from the team – in game, as well as on the registration page. Kaipi missed the deadline for dropping me and 7ckngmad by a couple of hours. In consequence, we both became stuck on Kaipi’s roster, unable to join our current teams. In our situation, while we all agree that the current registration system is better than the old one, it was hurting us a lot. Like I said, ProDota was considering disbanding altogether. I’m very thankful that Valve stepped in and helped us sort out this mess. After all, it wasn’t their fault, it was ours. We were all naive, we thought things would sort themselves out and counted on our managers to do their jobs, but the scene still has a lot to improve when it comes to this. It’s great to know that we have a partner in Valve, in our hour of need.

— Alexandru “ComeWithMe” Crăciunescu

For this year’s roster registration, teams had until September 4th to release players from their current rosters in preparation for the upcoming season. Many believed the wording to be fuzzy and vague, since no specific time was mentioned: “The drop period is currently open until September 4th”.

According to a letter received by ProDota Gaming from Valve, a new countdown timer has been instituted on the registration page for future reference.

As a one time exception, due to the FAQ being unclear about the exact time of the lock, we have released the player you are requesting. Note that the registration page now has a countdown until the lock date expires, we hope this will eliminate further confusions.

— Valve

New players can be added to teams’ rosters between September 4th-18th. The rosters will become locked on September 18th, at 12:00AM PDT.