Dota 2 Bali Major: BetBoom get default loss vs Tundra after Pure caught stream-sniping
BetBoom were dropped to the lower bracket, where they faced China's Azure Ray and suffered a 2-1 loss.
The result of the upper bracket match between BetBoom Team and Tundra Esports in the Dota 2 Bali Major has been changed to a default loss for BetBoom after their offlaner, Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko, was caught stream-sniping during the match.
The match, which took place in the opening day of the Bali Major Playoffs on Wednesday (5 July), originally ended up as a 2-0 sweep in favour of BetBoom.
The result allowed the Eastern European team to advance to the upper bracket semifinals against Team Liquid and, more importantly, secure a direct invite to The International (TI) 2023.
During a pause in the match, Pure was caught watching the Twitch stream of Russian streamer Aleksandr "Nix" Levin. Watching any streams during a match is prohibited by the tournament rules.
As a result, BetBoom have now been dropped to the lower bracket, where they will face Chinese team Azure Ray in the first round.
Meanwhile, Tundra will instead be the ones advancing to the upper bracket semifinals to face Liquid on Friday (7 July).
Bali Major organiser IO Esports followed up their original decision to void BetBoom's win by saying in a statement that Pure has also been disqualified due to his breach of tournament rules.
As a result, BetBoom tapped Roman "Resolut1on" Fomynok, who attended the Major as talent, to be their stand-in for their match against Azure Ray.
⚠️ OFFICIAL STATEMENT! ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/pdKoKrkuPg
— IO Esports @ Bali Major (@ioesportsgg) July 6, 2023
Reports also surfaced that Azure Ray refused to play against BetBoom if Pure was not disqualified. If not, the Chinese team threatened to forfeit the match and report the incident to Dota 2 developer Valve Software.
BetBoom's players apparently didn't take too kindly to Azure Ray's actions. During a pause in their match, Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek asked Azure Ray through all chat, "Why [did you] guys force admins to disqualify Pure? [Are you] scared to play against our full roster?"
Azure Ray would go on to win the match, 2-1, eliminating BetBoom from the Bali Major in 9th-12th place.
The Bali Major Playoffs will take place from 5 to 10 July and will follow a double-elimination format. All Playoff matches will be a best-of-three except for the Grand Finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.
While the competing teams in Bali are fighting for their cut of the US$500,000 prize pool, they have their eyes set on a share of the 3,500 DPC point pool.
Those Dota Pro Circuits (DPC) points will go towards securing all-important direct invites to The International (TI) 2023, this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual multi-million dollar world championship tournament that will be held in Seattle this October.
For everything you need to know about the Bali Major, check here.
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