“ESL took the slot away from us and gave it to OG”, said 1win’s coach.
The first of ESL Pro Tour's LAN event, ESL One Birmingham, is set to take place two weeks from now. But an early dispute sparks as a qualified team, 1win, fails to meet their VISA deadline and is forced to sit out of the event. ESL ultimately replaces 1win with OG Esports but 1win is unhappy with the decision, gearing to release their "full story" soon.
ESL took the slot away from us and gave it to [OG].
1win unhappy with ESL's decision to replace them with OG
ESL One Birmingham is one of the biggest upcoming Dota 2 tournaments of the year. Only twelve teams will participate in the event including the Russian organization, 1win, which qualified through the Eastern European qualifier.
However, ESL recently announced that 1win was not able to meet their VISA deadline despite a deadline extension. Ultimately, ESL gave the empty slot to OG which came in second place during the Western Europe qualifier.
Following this announcement, 1win released a statement from its coach Ahilles, telling fans and the Dota 2 community to "expect an official announcement and full story" from the organization. According to 1win, all their players have VISAs and passports ready for ESL One Birmingham. The statement also called out ESL for taking 1win's slot and giving it to OG.
Khezu responds to 1win's statement
After 1win released its statement, Dota 2 commentator and caster quickly took a jab towards the esports org. Khezu expressed frustration with people "lying and twisting things in their favor" in the esports industry, specifically 1win's bold claims against ESL.
"This 1win coach saying 'esl stole our slot' - bro you didn't meet the extended deadline of having VISAs. And I know VISAs suck, but still," he posted.
The 1win conflict with ESL heats up as we await 1win's "official announcement" and possibly more responses from other parties. This also once again involves OG who has recently suffered the heats of a matchfixing scandal by their former player Taiga. At the moment, we'll just have to wait for the story to unfold.
Until then, stay tuned to esports.gg for more Dota 2 news and updates.