Coach Leathergoods Responds to Dogie's Statement on Nexplay EVOS' SIBOL Penalty

Bren Esports and the SIBOL's coach, Ralph “Leathergoods” Llabres posted his response to Setsuna Akosi “Dogie” Ignacio’s complaints regarding the penalty that Nexplay EVOS received during the MLBB Sibol Qualifiers Phase 2. The head coach criticized the pro player for his statements regarding the league organizers prioritizing the tournament livestream over the health and safety of Nexplay EVOS’ jungle specialist John Paul "H2wo" Salonga. Leathergoods added that all teams will receive no special treatment and the MLBB Sibol Qualifiers Phase 2 will not stop because of one player as each participating team was allowed to have two substitutes on top of the main roster.

Coach Leathergoods criticizes Dogie for accusing the MLBB Sibol Qualifiers organizers of not prioritizing the health of players

Through a lengthy post on his Facebook page, coach Leathergoods commented on Dogie’s statements on his vlog, where he says that the tournament organizers were prioritizing the tournament livestream rather than the safety and wellbeing of the players involved.

“Kinda weird that SIBOL executives’ decision to 1-0 the match was ‘prioritizing on livestreaming the match instead of prioritizing the health of the kid (H2wo)’ when that focus should be on the team and not the tournament provider or event organizer,” stated Leathergoods.

He added that he would never trade the health and safety of his pro players over a tournament. All management, owners, or team leaders, should undertake the responsibility of prioritizing their pro players’ health above all.

Prior to the match between Nexplay EVOS and Blacklist International, one of Nexplay’s pro players, H2wo, had to be sent to the hospital due to vomiting and a stomach ache. Instead of replacing H2wo with one of the substitute players, Dogie requested that the match be delayed long enough for H2wo to receive medical treatment.

The request was eventually denied and Nexplay EVOS received a penalty for one game, giving the first win of the match, to Blacklist International. According to Leathergoods, this punishment is quite tame and is merely a slap on the wrist for the penalized team.

“What happened here is something that the selection process has no control over and the decision to push through with just a one-game penalty despite a delay caused not only to the tournament but more so to Blacklist International,” stated Leathergoods.

He added that the punishment could have been a suspension, as revealed by SIBOL in its official statement regarding the matter.

Leathergoods stated that there will be no special treatment to all participating players in the MLBB Sibol Qualifiers. He then questioned Nexplay’s decision to not deploy its reserves in the first match.

“It’s a bit surprising, why would I include sub players if I don’t even want them to play in the first place?” stated Bren Esports’ coach. “It would feel like a slap across the face towards the sub players if I wasn’t confident in letting them play or do their job.”

He ended his statement by saying that all teams should acknowledge the health and concerns of players, but must also adhere to the tournament rules imposed by the organizers.

“I really hope teams would understand that as we want all the players to be healthy and ready for battle. This does not change the fact that we have rules to uphold and we have to make fair decisions,” stated Leathergoods.

In a separate post, Leathergoods clarified that he bears no ill intent towards Dogie. All he chose to do was share his thoughts regarding the matter as the comments section of Dogie’s YouTube vlog made it look like Sibol was the “bad guy”. He added that the organizers were just doing their job to uphold fairness and equality for all teams and players involved in the tournament.