Tournament organizer PGL has walked back its decision to disqualify a North American Dota 2 team from the Dota Pro Circuit NA Division II series for alleged match-fixing.
PGL’s May 26 statement explained that, upon receiving new information, the organizer reassessed its initial verdict and “have ultimately chosen to overturn the decision previously made.” The squad ‘American Goons’ has since been reinstated to its Division II slot ahead of the season’s start on June 7.
“After a comprehensive review, we believe it is in the best interest of the competition to reverse the disqualification,” wrapped PGL.
The decision comes amidst public outrage of the decision from across the Dota community and following a post from American Goons’ team manager Adarsh “logical” Kumar on Reddit.
Logical outlined in great detail the team’s ordeal following their disqualification and their perspective on the matter. This included noting PGL’s investigation was held overnight, with a decision determined as the team arose on May 25 and entirely based upon a number of chatlogs between players “jokingly saying that we lost so that we’d gatekeep them,” referring to their opponent’s team name, GateKept.
Related: Young NA Dota 2 squad finds itself in matchfixing scandal that actually might not exist
“We are committed to fair play and would never compromise our competitive integrity by intentionally gatekeeping a team from the DPC in such a petty manner,” logical said, while also identifying GateKept as the team who had submitted the chatlogs to PGL admins. “The people who are pushing for our disqualification are the same people who would receive our slot if we are disqualified.”
The manager said he had only received five messages from PGL in total, and allegedly at no point did a member of PGL’s admin team reach out to the squad during the investigation outside of their official notice of disqualification.
American Goons’ support pingu was relieved following the reversed decision, thanking the Dota community for being so outspoken about the controversial situation.
“Thank you to the Dota community for having our backs and supporting us these past two days. Back to Div Two, my home,” pingu said on Twitter.
The team’s official Twitter account reaffirmed the squad’s commitment to the DPC Division II competition and thanked those who stood by the team during the investigation, saying that everyone is “committed to giving our 100% in preparation for the NA qualifier for this year’s International.”
Some members of the community were pleased by the findings of the investigation and PGL’s ultimate decision to reverse the disqualification, while others remained perplexed such a decision could be made without hard evidence. One such community member called for GateKept to be punished for making false accusations against American Goons.
Dot Esports has yet to receive an official response from PGL following inquiries made at the time of the original decision to disqualify the team.
