Vici Gaming Explains Why It was Forced to Forfeit DPC Tiebreaker Game
Earlier today, fans witnessed a surprise in the China Dota 2 Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021/22 Upper Division Tour 2, with Vici Gaming deciding to not compete in the tiebreaker series against Royal Never Give Up (RNG). As a result, the team received a technical defeat and finished in fifth place, handing over the final major spot for China to its opponents.
RNG have secured a spot in the ESL One Stockholm 2022 Major as a result of this forfeit
Fans were baffled by this development since the tournament organizer did not specify the reason behind the forfeit, only choosing to say that RNG secured a default 2-0 win. With Sparkling Arrow Gaming also forfeiting its series against Phoenix Gaming in Division 2, questions about whether this was forced due to the ongoing Shanghai lockdown began to be raised.
Following this, ViCi Gaming finally issued a statement to put a stop to the speculations.
Vici Gaming claims that it forfeited tiebreakers due to Yang’s back injury
In a statement issued on its official Weibo handle, Vici Gaming announced that it forfeited the game against RNG, due to its inability to play with offlaner Zhou "Yang" Haiyang in it. According to the team, Yang had recently suffered an injury to his back, which meant that the player was unable to sit for long periods of time, rendering him unavailable for this match.
According to the DPC rules, a team is only allowed to play with up to one substitute, for four matches total, as long as that sub isn't competing on a team from a league of the same division or higher. Since Yang was already a substitute brought in to the team well after the transfer window had closed, the team could not field another substitute to replace him.
Vici claimed that the team could not solve this problem in such a short amount of time, and hence was forced to forfeit the tiebreakers.
As a result of Vici Gaming’s forfeit in the tiebreakers, RNG secured a top four berth in the China DPC this tour, $26K in prize money, 80 DPC points and has qualified for the ESL One Stockholm 2022 Major alongside PSG.LGD, Xtreme Gaming, and Team Aster.
There are, however, many doubts about whether Chinese teams will be able and willing to make the trip to Stockholm for the 2nd DPC Major of the season, due to the severe lockdown restrictions currently in place in Shanghai.
