Trash talk your way out of this one, buddy.
A professional Philippine eSports player was banned by Dota 2 developer Valve yesterday from competing in a million-dollar tournament in China after allegedly making a racist taunt which offended Chinese players.
Carlo “Kuku” Palad, a member of the Philippine team TNC Predator, was barred from competing at the 2019 Dota 2 Chongqing Major after making the racial slur during a public game last month.
According to Fox Sports, Palad typed the words “ching chong” during a match on Nov. 3. After the incident, TNC’s team manager Paulo Sy claimed that “ching chong” was the handle of one of the Chinese players in the match, which he later confessed was a lie.
The Dota team said in a blog post yesterday that TNC “mishandled the situation” and made it much worse.
It read: “While it is one thing to make a mistake and apologize, it is quite another thing for the team to lie about it or try to create [a] cover for an individual player. TNC has mishandled the situation on multiple occasions, making the situation much worse than it needed to be.”
“[It] seems like TNC is currently not taking proper responsibility for their actions, coupled with the attempted cover-up by the team, so we are now stepping in directly and banning Kuku from attending this event,” it added. “To be clear, TNC is not the victim in this case.”
AFP reported that some eSports casters and analysts have threatened to boycott the tournament, like North American player-turned-caster Grant “GranDGranT” Harris.
“If Kuku isn’t allowed to play at the major I refuse to cast officially for the major [tournament],” he wrote.
“[We] all make mistakes and 1 mistake should not forbid you from playing at a tournament that potentially decides your whole career.”
If kuku isn’t allowed to play at the major I refuse to cast officially for the major , we all make mistakes and 1 mistake should not forbid you from playing at a tournament that potentially decides your whole career
— Grant Harris (@GranDGranT) December 2, 2018
Aside from having to replace Palad, the TNC team will also be penalized by Valve by decreasing their Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) points by 20 percent. The DPC points are used to determine which teams will qualify for the coveted The International tournament, which is the biggest Dota 2 tournament. It will be held in August 2019.
The Chongqing Major will be held from Jan. 19 to 27 next year.
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