Kuku and Skemberlu are banned from attending The Chongqing Major

TNC Predator’s Offlane Player Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Ex-Complexity Player Andrei Gabriel “Skemberlu” Ong have both been banned from the Chongqing Major. This was just a rumor until Matthew Bailey aka Cyborgmatt confirmed it in a tweet.  He also stated that both the players might be banned from The International 9 as well, since it will also be hosted in China.

It’s not a rumor. Skemberlu and Kuku are both banned from attending the Chongqing Major. Col and TNC were both contacted prior to the event and were asked if they wanted to kick the players.

There is still a chance that this ban can be extended and block them from attending TI9.

— Matthew Bailey (@Cyborgmatt) November 24, 2018

The bans came from the Government of China itself after an outrage among the people in China.

it’s not a rumor, the municipal government met to discuss after outrage and anger grew over what people in China felt was an inadequate or delayed response and reportedly came to the organizer saying: “this event cannot have these two players”

— Jack Chen (@KBBQDotA) November 24, 2018

Where it all began

All this started at The DreamLeague Season 10 Minor where Skemberlu typed “Gl chingchong” in all-chat at the start of a game versus Chinese team Royal Never Give Up (RNG). Chingchong is a racial slur, often used as a mockery to Chinese speech. Skemberlu faced an onslaught of hate from the Dota community and was also fined by Complexity. He made an apology on his twitter, stating that he had learned from his mistake.

I’d like to apologize for the language I used today during the dreamleague match. I understand that words have consequences and I have learned from my mistake. I am very sorry to anyone that was offended.

— Andrei (@skemdota2) November 1, 2018

Later, Kuku also typed the exact same word in a pub match and the situation escalated even further, reaching many internet forums like Reddit and Weibo.

Around a week later, Complexity announced that they were parting ways with Skemberlu as well as Jacky “EternalEnvy” Mao and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu. Skemberlu was being booted due to concerns from the organization that he wouldn’t be representing their brand in the right way. Envy and Sneyking were both requested to leave as “their visions didn’t align for the future” according to the organization.

Today we are announcing changes to #coLDota: https://t.co/N26VEqv1bL pic.twitter.com/aSFepLvERw

— compLexity Gaming (@compLexity) November 14, 2018

Opinions of various Dota 2 personalities

After it was announced that Skemberlu and Kuku are banned from the Chongqing Major, many Dota 2 personalities stated their opinions on the matter. NiP’s captain, Peter “ppd” Dager was the first to publicly speak out against the bans.

C’mon China…. What are you doing?? 🤦‍♂️

— Peter Dager (@Peterpandam) November 24, 2018

TI Winner turned streamer, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg later posted tweets, asking valve to move TI9 out of China and mentioning that the CIS and SEA regions are the ones that deserve a TI.

move ti9 out of china

— Henrik Ahnberg (@AdmiralBulldog) November 24, 2018

cis or sea are the two regions that deserve a TI

— Henrik Ahnberg (@AdmiralBulldog) November 24, 2018

Later, TI8 Winner Sébastien “7ckngMad” Debs and Dota 2 personalities Nahaz and Eri Neeman also made some tweets citing their opinions.

Individual tournament organizers cannot be allowed to ban players from DPC events. If there is another Major in the Philippines, do they get to ban Chinese players in retaliation? Valve absolutely must step in.

— Nahaz (@NahazDota) November 24, 2018

Just to briefly highlight the big picture of things. Esports and Dota bring people together.

Doing this achieves the exact opposite.

They screwed up. They were punished. Give these kids a chance to be better.

The world already has too many walls. Let’s not add more.

— Eri Neeman (@erineeman) November 24, 2018

TNC makes a statement on the situation

Today, TNC posted a tweet saying that they accept Kuku’s mistake and that they will be taking full responsibility for his actions. As a punishment, 50% of Kuku’s winnings from The Chongqing Major (if they qualify) and The Bucharest Major will be given away as donations. Kuku will also have to stream/cover the Chongqing Major LAN event and all the earnings from his stream will also be donated.

It is our best interest to educate our players to own up on their mistakes, take full responsibility and correct their wrong actions. To clarify the term “penalty/fine” we posted last time, 50% of Kuku’s winnings from KL Major, Chongqing Major (if we qualify) 1/4

— TNC Predator (@TNCPredator) November 25, 2018

Valve hasn’t made any statement about this situation yet and the Dota 2 community is going through a massive outrage. There have been many incidents of racism before like Liquid’s MinD_ContRoL making racist comments against Russians and IceIceIce using the N word on his stream. Neither of these players received any penalty and the issue was quickly resolved after the players and their organizations made a public apology. Many think that the Chinese are taking themselves, and the issue much more seriously than they should be, by banning the players from a DPC event. The Chongqing Major is being hosted by Valve and they should be having the final authority as to who should or should not be allowed to the event. Hopefully Valve will step up and clear the issue soon, as the situation is only getting worse.

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