Quinn Callahan · @ccncdota2
29th Nov 2018 from TwitLonger
This is my thoughts on this whole situation. So first off I’d like to apologize to the SA region and everyone that competes there or is a fan of SA teams. My intention was never to hurt your region or “slot steal” and if that’s what you feel this was I am truly sorry.
- [ ] Hey so I’m just going to write about how the season started for us and our reasons for doing the things we did. So the start of our team was basically sg esports +2 which previously consisted of both lelis and 4dr, Brazilian players, and flee who had been playing with them in South America for around 6 months. After TI they were looking for 2 new players as a group of 3 and me and ritsu were also looking for people to play with at this time so it was just the best thing for all of us. We play the exact same pubs, we regularly scrim other SA teams we had SA players on our friends list and talked to players from the SA scene all the time so it was just a natural transition for us. I am good friends with several SA players and help them in and out of dota as much as i possibly can just as I would for someone from NA.
- [ ] After the qualifiers the Americans headed back to America as the ESL qualifiers were coming up and ESL had said we could play in them. We decided it would make more sense for us to play the qualifiers with only 2 players on ping instead of 5. After this round of qualifiers ended we had flown multiple times between NA and SA and had played many sets of different qualifiers and as we had wsoe coming up which we had invited to we took a small break so people could visit with their families. Shortly after wsoe finished I was asked by EG to stand in for sumail as his visa had fallen through so I travelled to Germany very shortly after. This cut our planned practice against SA and NA teams before our bootcamp in Kuala Lumpur short so our next period where we could play together was going to be our bootcamp. It wasn’t a case of us hopping to SA then back to NA due to comfort but due to qualifiers, tournaments and practicality as we are not a rich team and paying for apartments and a place to play on such short notice would be extremely difficult.
- [ ] After we were eliminated from the Kuala Lumpur major we sat down and talked about what would be best for the team moving forward. Lelis originally a 3 player had switched to 5 to make room for us and was still a 3 player at heart so a change had to be made. It took quite a while as it was a very hard decision to make. Parting ways with people you really like and enjoy playing with is always hard. So 2 days before we flew back to SA we decided to kick 4dr and move lelis back to offlane. We had very little time now to find a replacement and with major qualifiers in SA already underway it was nigh on impossible to find a replacement from SA and as we had already payed for a bootcamp and hotels there because there was such a small gap between the end of the tournament and the qualifier we were sorta stuck. We also believed that at its core dota is a very region less game where different people can unite behind this awesome game and form a team with the aim to compete at the highest level vs other international teams, and that was our goal. With that in mind we chose kitrak as we believed he would be the best fit for us and give us that opportunity to compete at the highest level. And with the core of the team being the same and a bootcamp and place to stay already pre arranged we headed back to SA to practice the new patch and play the qualifiers. And that’s how we ended up where we are now. We had looked into ways to set up a permanent living setup but with only temporary visas and being on the road and away from home as much as we were it was very difficult to make that a reality by the time we returned to SA. At no point we’re we trying to take advantage of SA but we’re trying to become a real team of the region and I can’t say enough how sorry I am if that’s how this came across. I don’t blame valve or the fans in any way for this as it’s pretty easy to see how what ended up happening could be seen as slot stealing. But at the end of the day we’re just some guys that wanted to make the best team possible and got caught up in the travel and busyness that is dota. We’re going to continue to play as a team and will be competing in the NA minor quals. Hope you root for us and can’t thank you all enough for supporting this awesome game and awesome scene dota is