Team SMG Releases Official Statement Regarding Omission from TI11 SEA Qualifiers
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Team SMG were in the spotlight lately for all the wrong reasons. From controversially removed Micheal "ninjaboogie" Ross Jr. during the start of the third tour of the SEA Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) to being unable to compete in the upcoming TI11 SEA Regional Qualifiers, Team SMG were given a lot of flak from the community.
After it was found out that Team SMG will be ineligible to compete in the qualifiers, the team finally decided to release an official statement regarding the issue, as well announcing changes to its Dota 2 management.
Team SMG Releases Statement Regarding Its Omission from TI11 Regional Qualifiers.
Team SMG was recently in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, as earlier in the season it controversially removed Micheal "ninjaboogie" Ross Jr. during the start of the third tour of the SEA DPC which caused an outrage from the online community as a whole. Following the conclusion of the DPC season, Team SMG decided to bolster its roster with the addition of veteran offlaner Daryl "iceiceice" Koh and support Wilson "poloson" Koh as the team prepares for the upcoming TI11 SEA Regional Qualifiers.
However, the roster changes would end up in vain as Team SMG were first reportedly failed to register its final roster in time for the before deadline submission day. This was later confirmed as Valve’s DPC mobile application shows that Team SMG is omitted from the regional qualifiers.
Following the news, Team SMG’s management released an official statement on Twitter regarding its omission from the qualifiers as well as an apology to its newest additions as well as the fans of the team. “We regret to announce that our Dota 2 division has been disqualified from The International 2022 Qualifiers. We would like to apologize to our players who put their trust in us as an organization and to iceiceice and poloson who had hoped to play in front of their home crowd in Singapore.” said Team SMG’s management when confirming its disqualification from the SEA Regional Qualifiers.
Team SMG’s management later added on to the statement explaining the reasons behind the disqualification as they said that “Several reasons contributed to the unfortunate situation, including communication breakdown between the team manager and players as well as the late confirmation of the finalized DPC roster. Upon discovery of the disqualification, we made an appeal to Valve, however, the appeal was denied.”
Finally closing off the statement, Team SMG announced that current CEO, Yap "Kenchi Yap" Chee Loong will be stepping down and an interim CEO will be appointed. The team also stated that the future of Team SMG’s Dota 2 Division will be made at a later date.
As of now, Team SMG is currently on hiatus following its omission from the Regional Qualifiers but following the statement, we could expect changes within the roster of Team SMG following the conclusion of TI11.
