ESL One Dota 2 Closed Qualifiers in blunder as two teams forfeit

Dota 2 NA closed qualifiers at ESL One Birmingham saw a bit of a situation where two teams forfeited their matches. The teams in talk here are Team Yangzhiganlu and NextNext.

This is the first time two teams have simultaneously forfeited their match in a million-dollar close qualifier for the Dota 2 esports tournament. ESL One also released an official statement regarding the matter.

Team Yangzhiganlu situation

Yangzhiganlu informed ESL that the team won’t be able to take part in the closed qualifiers. The reason is that they are not able to secure a full roster to compete.

The information was relayed a few hours before the match. Due to this, ESL was not able to fill the gap on such short notice. Yangzhiganlu’s opponent GRIN Esports is directly awarded a win and will move to the upper bracket.

Yangzhiganlu was relatively popular and ranked third on their regional EPT rankings. The team also had a full roster that consisted of -

Luke "Yamsun" Wang
Francis "RCY" Fundemera
Paul "Speeed" Bocchicchio
Arif "MSS" Anwar
Kim "DuBu" Doo-young

However, two of the players, MSS and DuBu reportedly dropped out. This left the team two short. They were not able to find substitutes, which prompted the forfeit.

Team NextNext situation

While the reasoning for Yangzhiganlu was understandable, NextNext was in a bit of a weird spot. The team had a complete playing roster. However, they were unable to get a hold of one player, who was reportedly sleeping.

This led the team to drop the entire series. Their opponents Nouns were awarded with a default win and will be moving to the upper bracket.

What happens now?

The teams moving forward will face each other in the upper brackets. Yangzhiganlu and NextNext are not completely out yet, as they moved to the lower bracket. One of the teams will move forward as they will now be facing each other.