Valve has banned Kuku from The Chongqing Major

Valve has banned Kuku by Valve from the Chongqing Major. They made a blogpost today regarding TNC and The Major in which they gave their view on how things unfolded and why they made their decision.

Valve started off by saying that the ban was not issued by the Chongqing government and that him attending the event wouldn’t cause any security threats.

“We’ve been following the recent situation regarding TNC and the Chongqing Major and how it has unfolded. First, for clarification, Kuku is not banned by the Chinese government. While there is a lot of anxiety around his attendance and problems it may create, we do not believe his presence creates a real security threat” – Valve.

According to Valve, TNC mishandled the situation multiple times, making the situation much worse than it needs to be. They also mentioned that TNC contacted them on last Tuesday asking if they would get a DPC point penalty if they replaced Kuku. Valve replied that they wouldn’t and they were under the impression that TNC was planning to play The Chongqing Major with a stand-in. Since TNC didn’t do that and they tried to cover up the issue previously, they decided to ban Kuku from the event.

“TNC contacted Valve last Tuesday, asking if they would get a DPC point penalty for replacing Kuku; we told them that they wouldn’t. We assumed that they were then working on a plan to get a stand-in. However, it seems like TNC is currently not taking proper responsibility for their actions, coupled with the attempted cover up by the team, so we are now stepping in directly and banning Kuku from attending this event. To be clear, TNC is not the victim in this case. It is not okay to cover up the situation, avoid any real sense of responsibility and then deflect it onto the community. We expect them to disagree with this.” – Valve

In addition to ban, Valve is also reducing TNC’s DPC points by 20% which is a huge blow to the team. They clarified that Kuku is only banned from The Chongqing Major and that he can attend future tournaments (in China).

“In addition to being required to replace Kuku, we will also be docking 20% of TNC’s current DPC points. The player restriction does not affect future tournaments.” – Valve.

It is really sad that Kuku is getting the ban because TNC mishandled the situation. If TNC made Kuku write an apology post as soon as the issue got viral, all this would have been easily avoided. On the bright side, Kuku can atleast attend future tournaments in China but 20% reduction to their DPC points is a bit too harsh in my opinion.