Mind Games, the third-place team from the Eastern European Dota Pro Circuit have been officially disqualified after two players were unable to gain entry into Stockholm due to visa issues. The team already forfeited a game Thursday due to the same issues.
Due to continuing VISA issues, we have made the difficult decision to disqualify Mind Games from the #ESLOne Stockholm Dota Major.
As a result all Group B teams will receive automatic byes, and Mind Games will be the team eliminated from Group B. pic.twitter.com/aKVa6aRVAT
— ESL Dota2 (@ESLDota2) May 13, 2022
Mind Games disqualified from ESL One Stockholm Major
Visa issues have been a central talking point in the ESL One Stockholm Major, with four Chinese teams unable to attend the Major was already missing a central part of its international competition. Now, visa issues have also affected the Eastern European region. Mind Games originally qualified as the third-place team through the Eastern European DPC and even had replacements ready for two of their players in the form of Semion “CemaTheSlayer” Krivulya and Danil “Bignum” Shekhovtsov. However, despite their best efforts, they were not able to secure visas for ESL One Stockholm. The players kept their hopes high even in the final moments, as they forfeited their series on the first day and hoped to compete with a full team the next. However, the players could not make it for the second day and the team was summarily disqualified.
With Mind Games’ disqualification, the entirety of group B will now receive a bye, as only one team was meant to be disqualified from each group. The fan sentiment was already that Group A was the more difficult group out of the two, now group B will receive an even easier route through to the playoffs. The other Eastern European representative, BetBoom, has had a tough time as they are currently 0-3 in the group stage and have not won a single game. They are currently set to start in the lower bracket of the ESL One Stockholm playoffs.
ESL One Stockholm has already been off to an explosive and surprising start. Evil Geniuses, the favorites from North America found themselves on the brink of elimination in Group A and Thunder Awaken won their first two series of the day.
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